Levi's
URL: http://www.levi.com
Category: Corporate
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: Yes
Author: Adam Douglas
Certain corporate entities are so much a part of our lives, you'd think they wouldn't even need to advertise. The company that invented blue jeans, Levi's and it's trademark product are at least as American as apple pie and baseball, and certainly more pervasive. You're probably wearing a pair as you read this. Founded in 1853 by Levi Strauss who figured, correctly, that the material used to make tents and covered wagons would make a good pair of pants, Levi's has endured changing times and fashion upheavals ever since. The classic 501's, after a few modifications, have stayed the same sine 1922, and the denim jacket, introduced in 1953, is still popular after all these years. The dates come courtesy of Levi's very big, very engaging Web site: a multimedia extravaganza that goes all-out in an effort to attract folks to it's online promotional effort. The history section was, not surprisingly, my favorite segment of the site. Laid out along a timeline, the site shows, at a glance, when copper rivets were introduced, say, (1873) or when belt loops became a fixture of American fashion (not until 1922). There's a slightly patronizing "history quiz" that tests your knowledge of 1930's America, and how Levi's helped shape Depression-era fashion. Also worth a look is the Denim Dictionary, chock full of alphabetically organized Levi's trivia. Did you know about the "crotch rivet," an extra copper rivet that, until 1942, graced all 501's. Apparently, cowboys complained to Levi's that when crouching around the campfire, the bygone rivet tended to heat up, causing much discomfort. The site gets a little out of control when it veers away from jeans street to venture down every subcultural alleyway in existence. What, after all, do raves, anime, spoken word performances, Haight-Ashbury, and space aliens have to do with what pants I wear? Why would I want to read the bio's of the "stars" of their European commercials? Not content with it's already prominent place in fashion culture, worldwide, it seems Levi's wants to create its own subculture, based on their media presence and association with hip ad firms (Tomato) and graphic designers (Designers Republic). The clothing is already classic, with vintage 501's and jackets selling for hundreds of dollars. But then again, sites like these can no longer rely on others to create content for them; unlike television, where advertisers could just sandwich their pitch between the shows, the Web model requires advertisers to put on their own show. All the same, there is such a thing as trying too hard. And Levi Strauss is teetering on that edge.
Overall Rating: 18
FedEx
URL: http://www.fedex.com
Category: Corporate
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Adam Douglas
In an age when faster is not only better, but a matter of survival, it's no surprise that Federal Express has become such a business necessity. Every day FedEx ships over 2 million packages to over 200 hundred countries around the world. With more than 110,000 employees, 500 planes, and 35,000 vehicles to transport said packages, FedEx is on the ball. Now they even provide an online shipping service. Ideal for small businesses that don't want to bother with the hassles of the FedEx Power Ship system, the site provides a convenient alternative. The site is laid out as a functional site should be: intuitively. A simple yet stylish navigation bar adorns the bottom of each page, which makes it easy to get around. The graphics are downplayed in favor of instructional text, and what graphics there are mostly comprise functional buttons and such. Content is light, but informative. There's no unnecessary FedEx junk that no one cares about - you're here to ship your package, not read the stockholders' report. FedEx knows this, and sticks to a "Just the facts, Ma'am" approach. Get in, ship it, and get out. Once you've called to get your FedEx account number, you can ship all your packages from the site. After you process the package, a barcode with a specific tracking number is printed up on your laser printer (sorry, no inkjets), as well as an airbill. You can also arrange to have a driver pick up the package, or take it to a FedEx drop-off. Don't know where one is? Don't worry, the site will apprise you of the nearest location. And if for any reason your package gets lost en route, you can track its whereabouts as well. How's that for convenience? For the harried executive or over-stretched small business, the FedEx site could be a blessing. Because when it has to be there overnight, it has to be there overnight.
Overall Rating: 18
Sub Pop
URL: http://www.subpop.com
Category: Music
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Adam Douglas
Few record labels have attained the status of culture. That may be a dubious distinction, but remember, most independent record labels are lucky if they can leak out a few copycat records before filing for bankruptcy, let alone make the Big Time. And to actually be at the forefront of a musical movement, to spawn a new sound,...a culture even? Well, that's exactly what Sub Pop did: It was Sub Pop that blew the top off the whole disaffected-white-boys-in-flanel culture of late 80's Seattle; Sub Pop that nurtured Soundgarden; Sub Pop that exposed the now-legendary band, Nirvana, to the world. There was a time not long ago when you could hardly walk into a record store without overhearing some long-haired kid talking in reverential tones about "Sub Pop." The Seattle label has always been about its bands, first and foremost. The sleeves on the singles reflected that fact: They were homogeneous, featuring a black and white photo of the band in (very) live action -- often tumbling off the stage or onto one another -- with a white bar across the top bearing the the band's name, song titles, and the Sub Pop logo. So while the focus was on the group, the sleeve was always instantly recognizable as Sub Pop's. And for many music fans, that fact alone made it worth a listen. The Web site, while livelier than those grunge-era sleeves, fulfills the same purpose: focusing on the bands, without letting you forget who is behind them. The deepest section of the site is the discography. You can search for your favorite Sub Pop band by catalog number or band name, or just trawl through the vast sea of bands to see what's out there. A quick haul turned up some old favorites (Mudhoney, Tad), some new (Jale, Sunny Day Real Estate), plus a few surprises, mostly in the form of the highly collectible "Singles Cub" (a 7" record a month ). You can download many of the A-sides (samples or full-length). If you've ever wondered what early Greenriver sounded like, here's your chance. The rest of the site is made up of (selected) band histories, including an interesting anecdote about the Rev. Horton Heat, up-to-date tour information, a plethora of photos, and the omnipresent MegaMart, where you can shop for all your favorite Sub Pop merchandise. You can even find out how to book a band or get a job with the label. The site is pleasing to look at, all retro graphics with linoleum-style backgrounds. Like everything Sub Pop does, the pages are economical and unselfconscious. There's no attempt to, like, force it down your throat; they know they're hip and they're mellow about it. So if you haven't heard from Sub Pop since the whole grunge thing got out of control, take a look-see. There are loads of great bands at this site just waiting to be discovered. Which is what Sub Pop's all about, right? Nothing but great bands. Download one today and see for yourself.
Overall Rating: 17
Discovery Channel Online
URL: http://www.discovery.com/
Category: Media
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Discovery Channel Online strikes a fine balance between a tight layout, subtle graphics (featuring the popular push-pull logo animation), and consistently engaging articles and photos. A calender motif thematically groups the stories, so a piece on Timothy Leary's proposed Internet suicide is found on the Saturday Technology page, while Science Wednesday features a hypertext essay all about Alan Turing, chaos theory, and artificial life. In keeping with the Discovery Channel's programming philosophy, there's really an embarrassment of riches here. Well-written features on nature, history, people and exploration round out this outstanding and inexhaustible webzine. The only complaint is all the download time.
Overall Rating: 18
Frontline Online
URL: http://www2.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/
Category: Media
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
"Literate television," says Frontline's David Fanning, "combines reporting that does not speak down to the viewer and filmmaking that avoids packaging news in the disposable, formulaic patter of standups and sound bites. It raises and addresses questions without skirting complexity." The award-winning PBS series expertly uploads its ideals to the Web, filling its elegant pages with rigorously researched and cross-linked stories on subjects ranging from the ongoing Shakespeare Mystery to the ascendancy of Jesse Jackson. Transcripts are downloadable, gratis, within 2 weeks of broadcast and many pieces are accompanied by RealAudio files, like the one about WACO, which features a conversation between Koresh and the FBI. A real treat for fans of independent journalism.
Overall Rating: 18
Cornell University's CU-See-Me
URL: http://cu-seeme.cornell.edu/
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
In case you haven't heard, Cornell University's CU-See-Me is popular server-client architecture that lets you use your computer for videoconferencing. Its home page underlines the software's potential by showing screenshots of schoolkids and scientists getting busy with the bandwidth. Here, you'll find all the information you need to join in the fun. Read the white papers, download the software (yes, it's FREE) and check out the calender of online events. You can also subscribe to a discussion list. In short, a futurist's dream come true.
Overall Rating: 18
Multimedia File Formats
URL: http://ac.dal.ca/~dong/contents.html
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Do you sometimes wonder, "what is a PDF all about?" Or, "how can I watch that damn movie I downloaded?" Maybe you want to know how to e-mail a Mac document to a PC? If so, this is the web-guide for you. File formats are clearly explained in terms of usage, mode of compression and transmission, and parsability across platforms. Each chapter provides links to select sources. Coverage extends to foreign language viewers and editors, including Chinese and Russian. Webmaster Allison Zhang writes clearly and her website delights with its expert use of Frames and dashes of pastel.
Overall Rating: 18
Seamus Heaney
URL: http://sunsite.unc.edu/dykki/poetry/heaney/
Category: Literature
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
This site has all the simplicity of Heaney's poetry. A single photo of the smiling Nobel Laureate presides over a table of links. These lead you to poems spanning his entire career from book one to his most recent, *Seeing Things*. Each poem is complimented by a downloadable audio file of Heaney reading it in his resonant brogue. Another page provides an ample biographical sketch along with thoughtful annotations to the archive. The inclusion of the commencement speech Heaney delivered last year at UNC provides an alternative glimpse at the poet's wisdom.
Overall Rating: 18
Children with Diabetes
URL: http://www.castleweb.com/diabetes/
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Here, you can ask an experienced team of doctors anything about diabetes and your query will be promptly posted with a reply and archived for future visitors. Enter webchat rooms arranged for kids, teens and adults with diabetes, or diabetes II. Make a friend online. Search a massive database. Follow crosslinks to detailed information on everything from pump varieties to experimental treatments. You're even invited to upload your wisdom to their FTP site. A strong sense of community, coupled with CastleWeb's elegant design, makes for a highly effective presence. Aesthetics: 3 Content: 3 Smarts: 3
Overall Rating: 18
Prostate.com
URL: http://www.prostate.com/
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
A cheerful EKG flashes across a nifty home page. Frame-savvy and server push make for a smooth ride to in-depth information on prostate cancer. "Journal Club" provides summaries of wide-ranging medical articles that are available in their entirety. Highlights from the Prostate Cancer Conference include research on topics such as the benefits of drinking green tea. A bulletin board allows serious discussion to develop into a full-fledged support group. Shareware is provided by outside agencies and drug information was on its way at the time of this review. Aesthetics: 3 Content: 3 Smarts: 3
Overall Rating: 18
Family Education Network
URL: http://families.com/
Category: Education
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
FEN is one part of the highly esteemed Education Publishing Group's multimedia strategy for helping parents and children prepare themselves for an increasingly competitive world. This is a thoughtful, technologically literate and exceptionally well-designed site featuring articles by Ivy League educators; topics range from browsing the web with your kids to managing your teenager's finances, and balancing your career with your family life. A superb BBS points you to numerous concurrent discussions, and a section on exceptional parents tells the stories of families that endure grave or uncommon situations, and enables them to find their peers around the world.
Overall Rating: 18
Just for Kids
URL: http://aone.com/~mrbill/kids.html
Category: Kids
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
This visually delightful page does a fantastic job of reviewing Websites produced by and for kids, ages 18 and under. Every week, those of the highest caliber receive Digby's "Four-Paws" Award for Excellence. The ones that I saw were stylishly designed, and ideally suited to kids who want to connect with each other. A select few, like Katie Prunka's Pooh Pages prove that some of the most charming design is coming from the minds of 7th graders. In building this page Webmaster Bill Earles has added rare value to the Internet. You can join him by nominating your favorite sites.
Overall Rating: 18
Internet News Radio
URL: http://www.iNewsRadio.com/inr/
Category: Media
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
With minimalistic design redolent of German engineering, iNR inspires confidence in its services before you've even sampled a sound. With a 14.4+ connection and a RealAudio plug-in, you can stream weekly real-time stories of relevance to the Internet, and the related telecommunications and technologies industries. A special feature currently reports from the The Fourth International World Wide Web Conference. iNR also hosts a beautifully designed subsite of "irreverent" film reviews and interviews from Hollywood. As streaming technology improves, iNR is poised to stay at the forefront of Webcasting.
Overall Rating: 18
Explorations
URL: http://www.tc.cornell.edu/er96/science96/Explorations/
Category: Science
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
The Cornell Theory Center's online science book Explorations is intended as an interactive journey into the world of computational research. Studies range in scale from the cosmic to the subatomic. One project uses animated VRML files to map the pressures affecting certain American ecosystems, and encourages policy makers and the public to join biologists in learning from and acting on the data. The goal of this ongoing project is to "make a meaningful linkage between identifying ground-level phenomena and tracking their behaviors from space" so as "to monitor large-scale environmental changes in the future." A scientifically innovative and rewarding site.
Overall Rating: 18
Franklin Institute Science Museum
URL: http://sln.fi.edu/
Category: Science
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Powerful and focused design makes this enormous site a complimentary extension of the Philadelphia museum. Among the exhibits presently open, a fiercely pumping java applet draws visitors into an exploration of the human heart that features crosslinked pages about circulation, the history of cardiology, and health. From there you can wander into a showing of the Hubble Deep Field photographs, which purport to capture light from the edge of the universe. One can also link to the Philadelphia Enquirer or post a query for the institute's scientists. The forthcoming search engine should greatly enhance future visits.
Overall Rating: 18
Mount Wilson Observatory
URL: http://www.mtwilson.edu/
Category: Education
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
The Mount Wilson Institute is devoted to realizing, for public benefit, the maximum scientific and educational potential of the Mount Wilson site and facilities. The observatory's online presence links scientists and students to databases containing papers on High Angular Resolution Astronomy, Adaptive Optics and the like. Remote visitors can take a well-designed virtual tour of the mountain and all of its telescopes and attendant facilities. The spiffy interface links you to the home page, a search engine, and a help page from anywhere on site. Stargazers will appreciate the star maps they can generate online, while astronomy teachers will want to check out the Telescopes in Education distance learning project.
Overall Rating: 18
Jesus Ali Industries Home Page
URL: http://www2.corenet.net/jesusali
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Jesus Ali is an 18 year-old graphic designer and Aeon Flux fan with a few solid goals in mind. He wants to find his sister Evy Jo whom he hasn't seen since she was adopted away as a young girl; he wants to be part of tomorrow's underground mediascape; and, he wants people to check out his modified digital art and icons and know how much he loves his grandmother, who he happens to be living with. His home page manages to cover all of these bases with equal amounts of heart, humor, and intelligence.
Overall Rating: 18
The Art of HTML
URL: http://www.thecoo.edu:80/~menon/html
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Here you'll find an introduction that invites you to learn just how "fun, easy and generally intuitive" HTML is. Scroll down across a long table of HTML resources to find pointers to everything from beginner's essentials to CGI form techniques. Maybe you just want to find a designer to do the work for you? No problem: they're listed. If, on the other hand, you maintain an HTML site yourself, you can submit the url and it'll be reviewed for inclusion within 24 hours. Simple and effective.
Overall Rating: 17
The GNN Hosting Service
URL: http://www.gnnhost.com/index.htm
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
GNN (Global Network Navigator) Hosting Service is a subsidiary of America Online that sells Web space and authoring tools in a "total solution" package. Rent space and you can plug your information into a template and upload a Website in no time - without learning a jot of HTML. My sampling of such "cookie-cutter" domains revealed them to be more than serviceable. From vanity pages to dedicated lines, GNN's T3s do a good job of supporting its growing clientele. The company owes much of its success, no doubt, to the smooth copy and crosslinks that define this seamless website.
Overall Rating: 17
HTML Design Notebook
URL: http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/People/Connolly/drafts/html-design
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
These pages come from the Web Consortium (W3C) - the industry thinktank devoted to maximizing the Web's potential. W3C's major players include CERN, the European Lab for Particle Physics (where the Web was conceived), and MIT's Lab for Computer Science. Consequently, these pages are visually bare but extensively cross-linked and dense with fascinating papers on the latest r & d. From the prehistory of system chaos to the future of HTML, you'll find it all here. Ironically enough, many of the links are outdated and need to be readdressed! Still, it's an inspiring site.
Overall Rating: 17
iTools
URL: http://www.iTools.com/
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Here you have a host of Internet tools in one convenient site. The research tools range from online dictionaries to stock quoters to a world atlas collated by the C.I.A. Some of these, like the uncanny anagram finder, are indispensable to all good citizens. There's also a page of search engines (the usual suspects) all lined up and ready to load. For recent web-authors, there's also a page of links that point to simple ways of promoting your website for free. With its elegant interface and interesting cross-section of tools, I'd say this merits a bookmark.
Overall Rating: 17
The Complete Shakespeare
URL: http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/works.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
The plays and the poems are all here, unadorned and well-organized. Their conversion to html is thorough. Footnotes, for instance, are replaced by links to a glossary. In addition to the works, there's an effective bulletin board system (Hypernews) which gives devotees a forum in which to query each other. The current debate regarding "the Authority question" is especially lively. There's even a link to Bartlett's familiar Shakespearean quotations. Even though the search engine and the glossary could use some work, these pages remain an essential resource on the Web.
Overall Rating: 17
Proust Said That
URL: http://www.well.com/user/vision/proust
Category: Literature
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Proust Said That may be the most radical project on the Web, devoted as it is to inspiring interest in a *Remembrance of Things Past*. The Marcel Proust Support Group is a boho San Francisco clan that formed to read the work in toto. P. Segal's loving documentation of their activities has made PST one of the most affecting literary sites around. Its elegant pages contain everything from Proust-inspired recipes and travelogues to the young Marcel's replies to the questionnaire that bears his name today. If you love Proust, you will adore these pages.
Overall Rating: 17
The Order of Saint Benedict
URL: http://www.osb.org/osb/
Category: Religion
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
The brothers and sisters of the OSB have assembled an impressive web of primary and secondary materials concerning the monastic life. Here you can browse dozens of meticulously cross-linked texts ranging from the definitive Rule of Benedict to a secular article on "celibate passion." A meta-list of global associates and a monastic e-mail directory make this quite a site. Should a monk in Rome happen to die, or martyrs be found in Algiers, you'll hear about it here in detail. Compliance with HTML 3.2 adds to the pages' ecumenical flavor. If anything is lacking, it's a searchable index.
Overall Rating: 17
Scientology
URL: http://www.scientology.org
Category: Religion
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Massive amounts of information lurk beneath the sanitary splash page. Start with a light introduction to founder L. Ron Hubbard or browse a searchable index of texts ranging from *Dianetics* to "Hatewatch: Germany '96." Downloadable quicktime clips will guide you on a virtual tour of the church's L.A. headquarters. You can even tap a RealAudio broadcast of Scientologists John Travolta and Leif Garrett performing Hubbard's musical opus, "The Road to Freedom." The depth and details of this site make it a fine model of rhetorical savoir-faire online.
Overall Rating: 17
The Red Cross
URL: http://www.icrc.ch/
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
A dense site-tree branches out to absorbing articles on every aspect of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Read the history of its humanitarian mission from the 1860s, through the Geneva convention, to the present. A world map links hyper-archives on crisis centers including Kabul and Sarajevo. A photo gallery illustrates the committee's campaign against landmines, which account for a quarter of its relief work. The spartan CERN aesthetic orders this inspiring and informative web page.
Overall Rating: 17
Outbreak
URL: http://www.objarts.com/cgi-outbreak-unreg/dynaserve.exe/index.html
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Outbreak provides in-depth information about emerging diseases for the interested layperson as well as the medical/health professional. It also provides a world-wide collaborative database to collect information about possible disease outbreaks. You can browse and contribute to field reports covering everything from an Ebola outbreak among Texan monkeys to Lassa Fever in Sierre Leone. This is another one of those ambitious websites whose seriousness and momentum merits the CERN aesthetic. Download a flood of papers. Link to Usenet groups. Register to stay current.
Overall Rating: 17
Reuters Health Info
URL: http://www.reutershealth.com/
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
These pages are an effective carryover of Reuter's information services into the health industry. The well-balanced home page highlights top medical stories on a daily basis. Headlines like "Intra-Arterial Vitamin C Improves Endothelial Function In Smokers" link you to detailed reports. Comprehensive news is available in categories ranging from clinical to legislative, and pharmaceutical. Archives are accessible via a powerful search engine. If you're feeling playful, you can test your diagnostic skills against a weekly Clinical Challenge. An invaluable resource for health professionals and students. Aesthetics: 3 Content: 3 Smarts: 2
Overall Rating: 17
CNN-Time All Politics
URL: http://AllPolitics.com/ Political
Category: Political
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
The result of corporate collaboration, this site efficiently updates American political stories on a daily basis, with crosslinked documents allowing you to skip from a campaign-trail headline, say, to a sound file of a speech. Categories like Candidates, Analysis and Polls give order to the in-depth coverage. Among the various modes of news media available herein, the most engaging is surely the e-mail correspondence of journalists dogging a hot lead. The single pull-down menu that links you to the site's exhaustive new archives is very convenient and there's also a search engine to help you navigate this sinkhole of information.
Overall Rating: 17
Publius
URL: http://www.publius.com
Category: Political
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Publius is a cross-country foray into the lives of "real Americans," whose feelings it proposes to tap for a consensus on the state of the nation. Updating their itinerary as they go, our non-partisan navigators are coming to your hometown in hopes that you'll join them for a bit of interactivity. During my uplink, their weekly notebook featured an amusing deconstruction of Independence Day, filled with pointers to places such as the White House. Another page is devoted to your "political statements," and CU-SeeMe and RealAudio have been implemented in hopes of broadcasting live from the campaign trail.
Overall Rating: 17
The Black World Today
URL: http://www.tbwt.com/index2.htm
Category: Media
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
TBWT aims "to be the one 'must stop' in cyberspace for Blacks the world over; a place where they can come each day to feed their minds and souls with uplifting information and inspiration, a place to meet and chat with each other and to engage in commerce." With its sophisticated design and knowing reportage, TBWT seems prepared to realize its ambitions. Here you'll find cogent politico-economic and cultural analysis from a pan-African perspective, complimented by historical and geographical profiles of black countries and achievers. Furthermore, embedded Webchat and a classifieds section give this site a promising degree of interactivity.
Overall Rating: 17
Cora Connections
URL: http://www.drive.net/kora.htm
Category: Music
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
The traditional Mandinka musicians of the Gambia, often called *griots* or *jalis*, have long been an integral part of their culture's social events, such as weddings and naming ceremonies. Their storytelling and singing often features the music of the kora, a twenty string wooden instrument similar to the sitaar or the harp. These wonderfully illustrated pages contextualize the kora within the cultural realities of West Africa, thereby imparting history along with pitch notations and virtual visits among master musicians. Downloadable sound files of Alhaji Bai Konte, for instance, are a tantalizing introduction to the instrument.
Overall Rating: 17
Uncle Bob's Kid Page
URL: http://gagme.wwa.com/~boba/kids.html
Category: Kids
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
This groovy-looking page hosts a long and diverse list of annotated links to Websites deemed "safe" for kids' consumption. Rows of animated smiley faces divide the page's various sections, rendering the act of scrolling an exercise in hilarity that won't be soon forgotten. Parents and kids alike may be surprised to find such a wide range of sites that are "appropriate" for the entire family. Trivia, pets, puppets, sports, games, art, and everything in between is covered by Bob Allison's discerning eye. If you're a kid with some time to browse, I'd check this out immediately.
Overall Rating: 17
Intelligent Agent
URL: http://www.intelligent-agent.com/
Category: Media
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
IA is a monthly New York-based newsletter reporting on the use of interactive media and technology in arts and education. With backgrounds in hypertext theory, literature and interface design its writers are hardwired for illuminating emergent areas of communication. Print articles are archived here alongside site-specific projects. Offering brief descriptions, the table of contents ushers you into intense hyperlinked interviews, essays, reviews and exhibitions on subjects ranging from internet copyright to distance education, and DNA-based art. A subtle balance between form and content makes IA a site for sore eyes and minds alike. They'll even mail you a free newsletter.
Overall Rating: 17
World Conservation Monitoring Centre
URL: http://www.wcmc.org.uk/
Category: Science
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
WCMC provides information services on conservation efforts and the value of biodiversity, while helping others build their own info-management systems. Parts of its database can be accessed including lists of threatened animals and protected parks, and a publications catalogue. A scrollable menu prompts you to search a nation, revealing, for example, that Pakistan's snow leopard remains an endangered species. Furthermore, during "environmental emergencies", such as major fires or oil spills, this site has provided environmental information rapidly to support the efforts of ground operations. Simply excellent.
Overall Rating: 17
The Nine Planets http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/nineplanets.html This site consists of about 60 pages, one for each major body in the Solar System. A photo of each object appears in its page along with facts and links to related images elsewhere on the 'net. Meditate upon the Olympus Mons or map "the face" on Mars. The beauty of these pages lies in their depth and humour, and the wild amount of links to stunning photographs and detailed facts that will thrill a wide range of viewers. For especially harried cybernauts, webmaster Bill Arnett has even hyperlinked an "express tour" of the solar system. Aesthetics: 3 Content: 3 Smarts: 2
URL: http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/nineplanets.html
Category: Science
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
This site consists of about 60 pages, one for each major body in the Solar System. A photo of each object appears in its page along with facts and links to related images elsewhere on the Internet. Meditate upon the Olympus Mons or map "the face" on Mars. The beauty of these pages lies in their depth and humour, and the wild amount of links to stunning photographs and detailed facts that will thrill a wide range of viewers. For especially harried cybernauts, webmaster Bill Arnett has even hyperlinked an "express tour" of the solar system.
Overall Rating: 17
Hi, I'm Michael Johnson
URL: http://www.michaeljohnson.com
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
If you watched the Summer '96 Olympics, then you know all about Michael Johnson, the American runner who took 3 gold medals. Judging from the Web site, the media-savvy athlete kept notes charting his daily excellence. Fans interested in Johnson's attitude as the games progressed will find a handy pulldown menu to guide them through his modest "Countdown to History," a thread that lets this human dynamo aggrandize his focus, drive, gratitude, and other such qualities. "My Dreams" leads you to Johnson's guiding lights, Jesse Owens and Wilma Rudolph. There's also a chance to win a pair of his running shoes.
Overall Rating: 17
Left-Wing Lingo, Ideologies and History
URL: http://www.dsausa.org/Docs/Lingo.html#pic
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
This site introduces the complex history of left-wing ideological movements. Web-author J. Hughes' simple layout and cogent writing draw together movements ranging from Populism to Communitarian Socialism. His brief explications of varying theories and praxes link out to relevant and consistently rewarding sites. Unfortunately, Hughes makes the common blunder of placing his text on a white background (making it harder on the eyes), and his family tree of U.S. Socialist History is too large to read on most monitors. Nevertheless, this site makes superb educational use of the Web.
Overall Rating: 16
Cupcake
URL: http://www.cupcake.com/index.html
Category: Media
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Remember those kiddy cupcake ovens from Fisher Price? Well, it seems they've migrated to the Web in the form of a 'zine self-consciously devoted to packaging non-nutritious ingredients. Cupcake's multimedia frosting invites sassygrrls the world over to sink their teeth into purest pop poop. Content ranges from media pranks to fashion spreads and celebrity profiles laced with blase irony. The young ladies I queried agreed that the Shock(wav)ed site served up a visual treat but left them starving, as cupcakes will, for meaningful substance. All the same, this site has a great feel to it, largely due to a seamless use of Frames.
Overall Rating: 16
BBC Multimedia Centre
URL: http://www.bbcnc.org.uk/the_centre/animenu.html
Category: Media
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
At this site, you'll find yourself staring at a wordless graphical interface that impels you to click on one of its several weird icons spun into motion by the progressive gif format. Clicking leads to Macromedia animations that reflect the Centre's mission "to explore the possibilities of interactive media, to better understand our role as broadcasters in the future." In the "loonoids" animation, a cluster of thriftstore instruments scatter across your screen to the arhythmic drone of an industrial soundtrack. Ever more daft animations abound. Since it's partly devoted to training BBC employees in the application of multimedia technology, the levity of the site would seem to foreshadow a strange new generation of British broadcasters.
Overall Rating: 16
U.S News Online
URL: http://www.usnews.com/
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Readers of the print version of U.S. News will want to check out its well-done Web version, which offers more than just the same stories for free. Here, feature articles run with links to related pieces that sometimes date back several years. Furthermore, there's a search engine to probe the archives. Those eager to correspond with other readers about current events are invited to post their comments in the Talk Back column. And to top it all, the site hosts spacious audio and video archives. There's even something called a chat infobank to enlighten the IRC-illiterate.
Overall Rating: 16
Developer's Resource
URL: http://www.mind.net/jfs/devres.html
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Another list of resources linked by a Web developer for others of his ilk. There's an affability about this site which raises it above the morass of bone-dry developers' nodes. Of course, there's a good variety of links to resources covering everything from programming languages to graphic formats and other developers' pages. But what stands out are Devres' unique features like the developer's survey form and the hilarious top ten programmer's quotes ("It should all work."), which alone make it worth a visit.
Overall Rating: 16
HTML Converters
URL: http://union.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HyperNews/get/www/html/converters.html
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
There are a lot of file formats in the big old world. If you want to convert them to-or-from HTML, then this is the place to go. A bare-bones list with short descriptions points you to myriad programs, addressing all platforms and conversion scenarios, from MS Word to Postscript and C++. Our webmaster keeps his page updated and provides links to other lists of converters, one of which he claims is even longer than his! If you have an html problem add it to his message list, and some one will respond.
Overall Rating: 16
Zora Neale Hurston
URL: http://pages.prodigy.com/zora
Category: Literature
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Here's a welcome reminder of the literary prowess and charisma of a cultural pioneer. If you've never read anything by Hurston, follow the link to chapter one from *Their Eyes Were Watching God*. You can also browse a gallery of impressive photos or read from a wide-ranging, if uneven, selection of essays on the author. Whether you're a high school student or a Hurston scholar, this site is a good place to enrich yourself. A handy list of links will take you to sites relating to African-American art and culture.
Overall Rating: 16
The Universe
URL: http://www.lm.com/~kalin/author.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
This labor of love is dedicated primarily to the French Surrealists. The splash page features a frantic shuffling of images of personalities from Michel Leiris and Robert Desnos to the ubiquitous Andre Breton. They and many others are briefly profiled next to an excerpt of their respective work. The anonymous web author behind these pages is revealed only in his or her admiration for Paul Valery, whose *Island of Xiphos* is rendered as a full-fledged interactive poem which they apparently find interesting enough to explore in depth.
Overall Rating: 16
Mormon Matter
URL: http://www.greyware.com/authors/wpshunn/mormon.htp
Category: Religion
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Bill Shunn was born and raised a Mormon. These pages get a lot of mileage from his apostasy, last year, at the age of 28. You can read puerile jokes about B.Y.U co-eds or browse an irreverent glossary of Mormon terms. But the main attraction is Shunn's memoir of the missionary adventure that led to his expulsion from Canada. Of its 28 chapters, the couple I read were insightful and funny, and apparently controversial among Mormon cybernauts. Chapters from Shunn's unpublished sci-fi novel are also featured as are links to his "virtual home."
Overall Rating: 16
Intellicast
URL: http://www.intellicast.com/
Category: Reference
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
This is NBC News' online guide to weather and skiing information. A straightforward interface links you to an up-to-the-minute database of material ranging from full-color satellite maps to four-day forecasts for the world's major cities. The ski-link gathers snow reports and related information from resorts all around the States, Canada, Japan and Europe. In many cases, local snow-phone numbers and lift maps are available. You can also link to an online ski-shop. Once this site makes it past the initial stage of construction, it promises to be a handy resource.
Overall Rating: 16
ArtNow Gallery Guide
URL: http://www.gallery-guide.com
Category: Art
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Importing the simple design of its popular print series, ArtNow's site arranges current information on museums, galleries, artists and art fairs. Given the large number of European and stateside venues, the extent of the cross-linking is impressive, allowing you to exit to particular home-pages where available. With respect to "art fidelity," the few images included are frameless and well-compressed. The search engine that attempts to tie it all together sometimes leads to mis-anchored or unrelated links, but the site is easy enough to navigate without it.
Overall Rating: 16
The Page at Pooh Corner
URL: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~jmilne/pooh.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Explore the strange intersections and happenstance that connect diverse characters like the English soldier who purchased an American black bear as a pet in 1914, named it after his hometown of Winnipeg and gave it to the London Zoo, where it became the favorite of author A.A. Milne's son, Christopher Robin. A secret history is anchored in these nicely laid-out pages, with everything from photos of the actual bear to a Milne family history and anecdotes regarding Disney's thwarted attempt to erase the cartoon's English accent. As a bonus, you get to study the lyrics of Kenny Loggins' disarming Pooh tunes.
Overall Rating: 16
International Indian Treaty Council
URL: http://www.hawaii-nation.org/iitc/
Category: Political
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
These fascinating pages represent the IITC's ongoing project to confirm the rights of Indigenous Peoples around the world. At the heart of this site you'll find the complete text of the UN Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. After 13 years of work, with the input of thousands of Indigenous Peoples and hundreds of Indigenous Nations and organizations, the draft has been referred to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, where it's presently under consideration. The weave of cross-linked documents generated by the struggle for self-determination makes for potentially exciting writing in this age of diminished political expectations.
Overall Rating: 16
Yes Mark's Cyberhome
URL: http://pages.prodigy.com/marks_cyberhome/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
By day, Mark's a copier technician, but by night, well, he's "one total and completely outrageous Web page maniac!" Using playful forms and primary colors like something straight out of preschool, Mark has built a website to induce childhood nostalgia. He provides links to kids' online magazines for your cyberparenting pleasure, and also gives pointers to nodes ranging from a shareware gateway to a list of Web cartoons. But the neat thing about Mark's page is its apparent lack of cynicism, a quality you can hire his design team to inject in your domain. Aesthetic: 3 Content: 2 Smarts: 2
Overall Rating: 16
Brett's Bestest
URL: http://home.earthlink.net/~bglenn/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Brett Glenn's splash page asks, "If this were the last day of your life, how would you live?" When you try to enter the site, a Java applet prompts you to confirm that you're breathing. Which pretty much crystallizes the winning humor of this wry sixteen year old. The actual contents of the page, ranging from his wish list of CD's to a diagram of his desk, are fairly useless and he knows it, taking every opportunity to poke fun at himself. Brett's poems, however, exhibit the more promising flipside of his obsession with time misspent.
Overall Rating: 16
GreenBeat
URL: http://www.tec.org/greenbeat/index.html
Category: Political
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Every month, students, journalists, farmers and scientists contribute to Greenbeat!, an e-zine of environmental endeavors. With disturbing clarity, the June issue details how acts of nature and Congress are making 1996 one of the worst agricultural years in history. Back issues focusing on air quality, waste water, and so forth are archived. Greenbeat! also points you to a vast number of environmental concerns on the Web, as well as career opportunities in Texas and the nation at large. Interactivity is encouraged. As for design, Greenbeat! becomes all but invisible as the content comes to the fore.
Overall Rating: 16
The Theremin Home Page
URL: http://www.Nashville.Net/~theremin/
Category: Music
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Invented by Leon Theremin in 1918 and credited with being the first "synthesizer," the theremin is played by waving one's hands near two metal antennae: one for pitch, the other for volume. The result is a beguiling elasticity of sound that's been much in vogue of late among experimental musicians. Here, neophytes and adepts alike will find what they're looking for, from theremin ordering information and detailed building schematics to performance schedules and a photo gallery. You can also download sounds, browse a bibliography or join a newsgroup that discusses technique. A visually appealing, informative, one-stop site.
Overall Rating: 16
Louise Brooks Society
URL: http://www.slip.net/~thomasg/brooks.html
Category: Film
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Restless and bored, Thomas Gladysz went to rent something "sexy" one night. Drawn to the packaging of "Pandora's Box," he took it home and shortly found himself enthralled. He's since developed "a passion for silent film, for the history and culture of the 1920's, and for those 'extra-cinematic' qualities [he sees] in Brooks." His web devotional features an electronic newsletter; a filmography, and superb photo galleries complimented by interviews, trivia and biographies culled from a growing store of archival materials. If you're a Brooks fan, you'll love this node; and, if you're not, it just might make you one.
Overall Rating: 16
The Great Globe Gallery
URL: http://hum.amu.edu.pl/~zbzw/glob/glob1.htm
Category: Science
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
This site consists of thematic and historical maps, planiglobes, and cartographic nets in various projections, as well as satellite images, icons, and artistic visions. Zbigniew Zwolinski's aim has been to collect images of the Globe as a compliment to education in Earth sciences, geography, cartography, and Geographic Information Systems, as well as to exhibit the diverse artistic renderings of the globe. You'll also find a wealth of detailed data on the earth's history, composition, and relation to other objects in the solar system. Photo credits and annotations are sometimes lacking, but overall this is a striking show.
Overall Rating: 16
Alternative Energy Engineering http://www.asis.com/aee/ AEE provides serious information on how you can make your own electricity from solar, wind or water power. Its online catalogue and design guide covers 120 pages of design information and equipment for making electricity for homes, RVs and boats, as well as everything ranging from solar fans and coolers, to pumps, and hi-efficiency refrigerators. A well-illustrated introduction show you how solar light hitting photovoltaic cells yields energy to power electrical devices. Bookmark this site if you've got (or require) the energy to hack the system. Aesthetics: 2 Content: 3 Smarts: 2
URL: http://www.asis.com/aee/
Category: Science
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
AEE provides serious information on how you can make your own electricity from solar, wind or water power. Its online catalogue and design guide covers 120 pages of design information and equipment for making electricity for homes, RVs and boats, as well as everything ranging from solar fans and coolers, to pumps, and hi-efficiency refrigerators. A well-illustrated introduction shows how photovoltaic cells turn light energy into electricity. Bookmark this site if you've got (or require) the energy to hack the system.
Overall Rating: 16
Culture in Cyberspace
URL: http://www.radix.net/%7Ewlefurgy/welcome.htm
Category: Art
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Every Monday, CinC features a fresh page of cross-linked reviews on arts and education-related Web sites, with special attention to the legal and industry trends that contribute to their design. Editorial is intelligent, insightful and wryly humorous, reflecting the curiosity of a weathered publishing professional who has fallen in love with the Internet. There is a weekly e-mail edition, and past issues are archived. Design is tastefully modest, but the links page (covering CNN down to the latest of nrrdy Web zines) should be recoded to launch a second browser window if the viewer links out of site.
Overall Rating: 16
Rhizome
URL: http://rhizome.com/
Category: Art
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
A rhizome is a horizontal stem that extends underground and sends out shoots to the surface, connecting plants in a living network. Taking this metaphor for the Net as a point of departure, rhizome lets a community of hype-free designers and critics focus on sites of new media art emerging everywhere from the cyberpunk-next-door to the St. Petersburg Bienalle. Their reviews are knowledgeable, honest, and fiercely individual. A weekly mailing lets you join in the discourse. Designwise, Rhizome's baggy interface reflects its laid-back editorial and feels pretty smooth, but it's visually off balance and the colors need tweaking.
Overall Rating: 16
ArtsWire
URL: http://www.artswire.org/ArtsWire/
Category: Art
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
ArtsWire connects an absurdly massive network of artists and arts-related organizations in the U.S. and calls it a community. Detailed information on suburban American museums, independent projects, and art world jobs abound. If you wish to address your site to such a community, you can submit your url and a description for immediate linkage. The regularly updated list of links is comprehensive and very useful to any one with interest in online art or networking. The Arts Wire Current mailing list features news updates on socioeconomic, philosophical, and political issues affecting the arts and culture. Contributions are invited.
Overall Rating: 16
The PIXPage
URL: http://www.kpix.com/index.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
The PIXPage is the online extension of San Francisco's KPIX Television and Radio stations. Its remote control image-map points to the latest Bay Area news, traffic and weather reports. There's also a searchable index of the Eyewitness News archives and a page that loads continuously updated photos from a studio camera that pans the skyline from the Golden Gate to the Bay Bridge. For those interested in Bay Area jobs, PIXPage also sponsors JobSmart, an online employment service for Northern California. All said, this site is a multi-linked, well-designed gateway to mainstream San Francisco news and then some.
Overall Rating: 15
Comics Zone
URL: http://www.darknet.com/Motion/
Category: Media
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Comic Zone is the collaborative effort of Conception and Motion Comics, a pair of indie publishers emerging from the nascent Kansas City scene. Their site features bios and a gallery of samples from the various artists who have teamed up since the early nineties to produce company flagships *Captain Crafty*, and *Walt, the Wildcat*! The drawings on view are more than serviceable, but the marbleized purple backgrounds might be worth reconsidering. The colorless vertical frame that runs throughout these pages is also a bit of an eyesore. Nevertheless, there's a palpable sense of honest work in these pages, and I anticipate gradual but significant enhancements.
Overall Rating: 15
Brittanica's Lives
URL: http://www.eb.com/calendar/calendar.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
This is a simple search engine that extracts mini biographies from the vast Brittanica database based on any date of birth that you enter. A second cgi allows you to enter a year and generation. By entering the year 1935, for instance, and the generation of 20s, I was able to determine that in the year of Elvis Presley's birth, Jean Genet was the same age that I am now. Links in the bios will point you to the depths of the encylopedia, but there's a catch: you have to subscribe in order to follow them.
Overall Rating: 15
Wildcat Kids Photos
URL: http://www.siprep.com/howdy.html
Category: Art
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
These are the pages of St. Ignatius, a Jesuit prep school that's nearly as old as its hometown of San Francisco. The focus here is on photography. Even as our government seeks to regulate online self-expression, "photography encourager" Paul Hanley leads his students into the expressive freedom of hyperspace. Photos are exhibited among seven galleries along with students' musings on their inspiration. Send email if you like what you see. Tables and a fresh palette of backgrounds keep the browsing smooth. An illustrated history of St. Ignatius provides some context, but requires more information to be interesting, or useful.
Overall Rating: 15
Internet for the Fine Arts
URL: http://www.fine-art.com/
Category: Art
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
IFA charges galleries and independent artists to catalog and otherwise promote their works by featuring them in their busy web. Here, you can price an Alvar or a Warhol, and then fill out a form to initiate its purchase. There's no shortage of self-promoting unknowns in case you feel like speculating. It's hard to see how they expect to sell work, though, if it isn't visible. Add some jpegs, I say. There's plenty to see outside of the catalogs, a lot of it site-specific, and the list of links is rewarding.
Overall Rating: 15
Free Burma
URL: http://freeburma.org/
Category: Political
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
This site is simply a gateway to resources promoting the establishment of democracy in Burma. An evolving directory provides a networking tool for the Burma support community, listing people and institutions whose decisions will influence the country's future. Choose paths from a list that endeavors to link all serious and like-minded webs, including the Burmese Refugee Project and Students for a Democratic Burma. Graphically, the page is tricked out with an anti-pepsi icon and the familiar tickertape javascript that tells you, in this case, to "Oppose those relying on external elements, acting as stooges, holding negative views..."
Overall Rating: 15
Loud Records
URL: http://www.loud.com/index.html
Category: Music
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Loud Records' site is as packed and powerful as its recording artists. Covering the New York Hip Hop scene, Loud features the likes of Sadat X, Cella Dwellas, Wu-Tang Clan, and the Alkaholiks. Go to the Open Bar, click on a bottle, and get the appropriate flavor, including sound clips and information about the groups. Links connect you to Peeps Republic and Loud Radio, which features a DJ competition comprised of a series of mixes broadcast every two hours. Strong design and a good bit of information, though not all of the pages are up and running yet.
Overall Rating: 15
ChezMark!
URL: http://www.ualberta.ca/~mmalowan/ChezMark.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Mark Malowany is a self-professed computer geek or "MacGink," as he puts it. Using frames, his home page smoothly links you to mostly Macintosh and internet-related material. In his bio, you learn that Mark has spent some time schlepping around in "alternative" bands with unfortunate names like Picasso's Puke, StarBabies, and Elephants Gerald. You can download their music while you're browsing a news-page devoted to things like PGP and Canadian politics. In short, this is a serviceable newsletter from a fellow whose life is consumed by HTML tags and graphics design.
Overall Rating: 15
Terry Tourangeau's Home Page
URL: http://www.mulberry.com/~touran
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Using a chain of links as a visual throughline, Terry has designed a smooth, if somewhat uninspired and low-res, interface to showcase his hobbies. His personal page reveals that he's just 15 years old and spends enough time NASCAR racing on his computer to be ranked number 42 in the world, so who can blame him if the page isn't everyting it could be? Pages of links point to utilities and sports-related sites. But the main attraction here seems to be a page devoted to 'the magic' of POV-Ray, a text-based 3D-rendering program. As he continues to hone his design skills, no doubt Terry's page will improve.
Overall Rating: 15
Eeeek-Net!
URL: http://www.eeeek.com/
Category: Kids
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Eeeek-Net is a California-based e-zine for kids. Cartoon icons and frames organize a wide variety of informative and playful games and articles. On the statistics page, for instance, you'll learn that the human body contains enough iron to make a 3 inch nail. Elsewhere you can read a piece about Nevada's mysterious Area 51, or learn how a mischievous parson invented the story of George Washington and the cherry tree. The crossword puzzles would be a lot more fun as an interactive Java applet and the frames require adjustment. Nevertheless, there's plenty here to keep a kid curious.
Overall Rating: 15
Crisp
URL: http://www.crispzine.com/
Category: Zines
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
NYC-based Crisp is targeting the same kind of people that write the zine's lifestyle pieces: downtown yuppies with nothing to say. These pieces dabble equally in "fashion," "politics" and "activism", all with an eye to the almighty buck. It's working too. Crisp is nicely designed and plastered with BMW ads which allow it to serve RealAudio and manage a reflector site. To be fair, I did read an informative piece on object-oriented tech and the future of the Internet, but the rest of the material either lies beyond Crisp's domain, or reeks of corporate stoogery.
Overall Rating: 15
C-EdRes
URL: http://cnet.unb.ca/c-edres/
Category: Education
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
C-EdRes claims to be a "one-stop site" for finding and evaluating education-related Internet resources. Joining its e-mail list will get you a weekly set of new reviews written by teachers. These aim to keep others in the education industry apprised of what's new and worthwhile on the Internet. The results are diverse and growing, and you can search the regularly updated online database. If you're an educator, and would like to publicize an online resource among your peers, C-EDRes is a good place to do it. An added feature is the the list of arts-related links. Aesthetics: 2 Content: 2 Smarts: 2
Overall Rating: 15
Accepted
URL: http://www.accepted.com
Category: Education
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Linda Abraham, the author of *How to write an OUTSTANDING Personal Statement.* maintains a website that aims to help you do just that. Her rather plain page offers concise, useful pointers on how to advantageously turn your personal statement into a "human interest" piece starring yourself. Separate strategies are outlined for Medical, Business, Law and Graduate schools. You can also read the endorsements of applicants whom Abraham has helped to gain admission with her editing services, to which she devotes the rest of her site. If you're interested in professional help, send an e-mail or call her. Aesthetics: 2 Content:3 Smarts: 1
Overall Rating: 15
tt.net
URL: http://www.tt.net/index.html
Category: Music
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
tt.net is a Minneapolis-based ISP that maintains a large Website catering to the local independent music scene. A straightforward, graphical interface points you to a comprehensive and frequently updated list of local record labels, bands and management services. Labels hosted here include Restless Records, TRG, Atomic Theory and their numerous subsidiaries. Bands range from *The Replacements* to *The Last Poets*, and *Babes in Toyland*. Individual sites typically include press information, sound and video samples, and ordering information. Primarily, this site was built to shift units and is best approached with that in mind. Of the individual nodes, Restless seemed to be the most evolved.
Overall Rating: 15
Cool Writers' Magazine
URL: http://www.halcyon.com/ahcool/home.html
Category: Kids
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
This is the Webzine of Seattle's Arbor Heights elementary school. Designed by a teacher and perpetually under construction, these pages tap into the Web's revolutionary educational potential. By uploading poems, essays and stories, students are taught both to express and consider themselves in a global context. Cross-linking between schools is encouraged, and you, dear reader, are invited to send writing. They've got stuff from all over the world on their server. There are also links to other nodes in the Arbor Heights community, like the Jr. Seahawk Newspaper, as well as a list of links for educators needing technological guidance.
Overall Rating: 15
CameraNet
URL: http://www.boulevards.com/cameranet/index.htm
Category: Film
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
This site commemorates the Camera cinemas' twenty years of feeding the San Francisco Bay Area film culture. The listings will be locally useful of course, but their Web-wide crosslinks to reviews and related pages give them some global value as well. CameraNet also hosts informative pages on genres and schools such as the currently featured Hong Kong cinema and the silent films of the twenties, so you can get the scoop on, say, Jet Li or Lon Chaney to compliment a screening. The film-booker's report from Cannes is insightful and CameraNet's appeal to a loyal community bodes well for growth.
Overall Rating: 15
Movie Cliches List
URL: http://www.like.it/vertigo/cliches
Category: Film
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Giancarlo Cairella has laid out a simple directory of cinematic cliches organized by topics ranging from sex and bombs, to prison and product placement. This site offers hundreds of observations in the vein of: "Evil geniuses who devise bombs to destroy things/people always have them detonate after at least an hour, giving the hero ample time to defuse it." Readers of the rec.arts.movies Usenet newsgroup submit their own deconstructions, and you're prompted to do so as well. In short, a humorous and revealing idea plainly executed to charming effect. Film buffs will be glued to the screen.
Overall Rating: 15
International MPEG Bizarre 1st Film Festival
URL: http://www.perry.com/imb1ff/imb1ff.html
Category: Film
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
The Motion Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) meets under the International Standards Organization to generate standards for digital video and audio compression. Artists use these standards to compress their work to sizes that can be feasibly distributed across the Internet (at 28.8 kbps or faster). In this fest, artist John Perry has gathered a mixed bag of animations, videos, home movies and multimedia experiments that should interest anyone curious about the emerging art of cybercinema. I recommend viewing the German animation "Red's Nightmare." FAQs and viewers are available for newbies. And you're invited to submit a video of your own.
Overall Rating: 15
San Diego Zoo
URL: http://www.sandiegozoo.org/
Category: Science
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
If you're fond of the venerable and gigantic San Diego Zoo, then this site should prove appealing. Its elegant and smoothly crosslinked pages connect an illustrated web of information spanning the zoo's history, its grounds and all its collections. You can take a virtual tour of the simulated rain forests and wildlife animal park, read about a rare albino gator and other recent acquisitions, or learn about endangered species and conservation efforts. Details are also provided on how to become a member of the San Diego Zoological society.
Overall Rating: 15
Centre for Visual Sciences
URL: http://cvs.anu.edu.au/CVS.html
Category: Science
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Research in Visual Sciences seeks to achieve a better understanding of how the image captured by an eye is analysed by the visual system to produce a useful percept of the world. This is where scientists of the University of Australia upload their results. Studies on motion recognition and the navigational technique of insects are slowly coming online. If you've got time to kill, you might want to view the Single Image Stereograms, pictures that would have you screw up your eyes in hopes of revealing an encrypted image. Also available are images corresponding to the sight of a honey bee.
Overall Rating: 15
IPPA
URL: http://www.capstudio.com/ippa/award.html
Category: Art
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
The Internet Professional Publishers' Association DX award recognizes Web sites for design excellence. Its criteria are decidedly more serious than those of your run-of-the-mill "cool site awards". The IPPA focuses on the finest examples of design for "commercial applications" through the Internet, so you've got to be a Web-savvy merchant in order to win their admiration. Each week you'll find a big money site like Virgin Records or Salon critiqued by a conservative writer who hates plug-ins. If you're interested in keeping abreast of corporate repurposing and web design, this is a good site to bookmark.
Overall Rating: 15
Fairmodel
URL: http://fairmodel.econ.yale.edu/
Category: Education
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Fairmodel is a macroeconometric model of the U.S. economy that lets you forecast the economy, do policy analysis, and examine historical episodes. For example, you can change government policy variables and examine the estimated effects of the changes on the economy. Fairmodel is a resource for business forecasters, government policy analysts, macroeconomic researchers, teachers, and students. You can access data sets that chart the economy from 1952 to 2003. You can even read an analysis using the model of the Clinton and Dole economic plans, and if that doesn't calm you down, you can discuss it on the bulletin board. Aesthetics: 1 Content: 3 Smarts: 2
Overall Rating: 15
Bagheera
URL: http://www.bagheera.com/
Category: Education
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Rain forest imagery contextualizes Bagheera's introduction to the issues surrounding endangered species. A series of cross-linked "modules" provides information from different points of view. The central classroom node offers a high school curriculum that focuses on conservation biology and extinction. The endangered species database is built to explain endangerment and to provide links to relief organizations. Camp 41 is developing an online presence for research being done in an actual camp in the Brazilian rain forest. Since these beautifully designed "modules" have yet to be "launched", it's impossible to judge them, but they look promising.
Overall Rating: 15
No One's Daughter
URL: http://www.iol.ie/~fatcity
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
N.O.D. consists of several pages of links on a variety of subjects dear to the heart of our mysterious Web author in New Orleans. A graphic designer with a good eye for layout, Leigh's created some striking pages for these links, ranging in matter from a definitive resource for Noam Chomsky's work to a page on New Orleans music and nightlife. The link titled "Leigh is..." points you to an abstracted photo-collage embellished with words including "Buddhist," "mother," and "paranoid." Plenty of links, not much personality.
Overall Rating: 15
WDTN Channel 2
URL: http://wdtn.com/wdtn
Category: Media
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Despite the fact that the Web is a globally distributed network transmitting vivid design ideas everywhere, Dayton's WDTN retains the drizzly aesthetic of the newsroom itself. Perhaps the designers should be applauded for their devotion to the old style. It's hard to say. In any event, this site is another competent, if unremarkable, shoveling of daily news and weather reports into hyperspace. The few perks include an expression of WDTN's take on computer culture: "Making Money on the Web." Also, locals can now send e-mail to the weatherman, whose satellite photos are the best thing about this site.
Overall Rating: 14
Roald Dahl Page
URL: http://www.nd.edu/~khoward1/Roald.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Did you know that the author of *Charlie and the Chocolate Factory* served in the Royal Air Force? (Dahl was shot down over Libya at the age of 24.) Or that his books have been among the most frequently banned in American schools in the nineties? Biographical trivia of this sort, and photos, along with key primary texts (The Unofficial Oompa-Loompa Songbook), combine to make Kristine Howard's affectionate web devotional a rewarding site for young readers. One of the pages showcases reviews of Dahl's books written by children themselves, who are encouraged to contribute to this developing site. Aesthetics: 2 Content: 2 Smarts: 1
Overall Rating: 14
The Moor's Last Sigh
URL: http://www.randomhouse.com/site/rushdie/
Category: Literature
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Random House has built a glossy and somewhat shallow site to promote Salman Rushdie's latest novel. Dainty image-maps have been splashed all over and many of these pages are off-limits to people using text-based browsers, which seems ironic considering the force of Rushdie's words alone. If this doesn't affect you and you'd like to read some excerpts or look at the author's bio, these pages are worth a visit. Links will also lead you to a bulletin board, a RealAudio interview and a reader's guide for *The Moor's Last Sigh*.
Overall Rating: 14
A Celebration of Women Writers
URL: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/Web/People/mmbt/women/celebration.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Here you have a bare-bones list of Women writers. The only prerequisite for being listed is to be a woman and a writer, which doesn't mean that all the greats are listed, nor that all those listed are great. As a matter of fact, there are glaring omissions. The celebration is ongoing and requires your participation. Provide the busy, newlywed webmasters links to electronic texts by, and about, your favorite women writers. Their list is enormous, of course, and branching out every day.
Overall Rating: 14
University of Connecticut Libraries
URL: http://www.lib.uconn.edu/
Category: Reference
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Not all parts of this electronic library are open to the public and those that are contain resources directed mostly at members of the U.Conn academic community. So it's not clear why anyone else would want to browse these pages. Be that as it may, the library does a serviceable job of digitizing its collections. Most of the site is in the early stages of construction, but telnet access and a searchable database of materials, including course enhancements, are in place. Adding descriptions to the barren links that comprise these pages would greatly improve the interface.
Overall Rating: 14
The Flying Pig Awards
URL: http://www.ccnet.com/~cccorlew/pigs/pigs.html
Category: Art
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
The Flying Pig is sponsored by the laid-back, beer-drinking photo staff at the *Antioch California Ledger Dispatch.* Attuned to small-town assignments and hackneyed editorial, their criteria favours photojournalists shooting in the "real world" as opposed to, say, the theatre of war. The result is a list of winners arranged in categories such as "Person in an Office" and "Bowling." Mail-tos invite photographers to use the page as a gateway to their peers. The jury's concession to spectacle comes in the form of a special award for Tomas Ovalle's photos from the Burning Man festival, which alone are worth a visit.
Overall Rating: 14
Exquisite Corpse
URL: http://corpse.books.com/EChome.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Graphics at EC are so boring that you're forced to seek diversion in the texts. Thankfully, they're worth reading. From editor Andrei Codrescu's giddy farewell to Timothy Leary to Bob Black's insightful critique of *The End of Work*, EC's site delivers consistently fresh, well-wrought essay and fiction. The editorial focus on self-actualizing volition is commendable, no doubt. Intrigued readers might appreciate some context regarding the relationship of this site to its papery original, or to the surrealist parlor game for which it's named. Presently, however, these pages simply reflect a bland ambition to use the Web to win subscriptions.
Overall Rating: 14
Amnesty International USA
URL: http://www.igc.apc.org/amnesty/
Category: Political
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
This no-frills site publishes Amnesty International's Annual Report as well as frequently updated articles, in English and Spanish, on problems such as New York Police brutality. Its Info section outlines AI's principles and history, soliciting donations and allowing you to fill in a membership form. Detailed reports are available on projects such as the China Campaign. The Freedom Writers page, which provides information on people perceived to be prisoners of conscience is, of course, depressing and, at the risk of seeming naive, might even be useful if it contained mail-tos for relevant bureaucrats.
Overall Rating: 14
Zomboy
URL: http://www.netdoor.com/com/inferno/zomboy/
Category: Media
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Minneapolis-based comics artist, Thomas Florimonte, has inked, he says, for some of the best pencilers in the business. Greater ambitions have led him to combine his writing and inking talents in the creation of Zomboy. Here you can read about Florimonte's self-actualizing revelation and page through the first issue of his colorful comic which is out in stores this summer. The book's art and story are dictated by the misadventurous impulses of a pubescent kid, and since there's no shortage of them in the world, Zomboy should be a big success. You can order an autographed copy from the artist.
Overall Rating: 14
Northwest Fisheries Science Center
URL: http://research.nwfsc.noaa.gov/
Category: Science
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
The NFSC provides scientific and technical support for the management, conservation, and development of the Pacific Northwest fishery resources. Their mission includes ecological and genetic research on salmon, and the evaluation of the effects of marine pollutants on U.S. coastal ecosystems. Their home page loads a bland photo of the fisheries into a table against a backdrop of ghostly gray salmon. A somber image, in keeping with the site's exceptionally dry writing which, illustrated with technical diagrams, is targets fellow researchers rather than casual browsers.
Overall Rating: 14
Diversity
URL: http://execpc.com/~dboals/diversit.html
Category: Education
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
This is a bare-bones list of links to all kinds of organizations representing the interests of communities often described as diasporic, subaltern and/or multicultural. As always, the great thing about the Web is the speed with which it enables people to make their messages globally accessible. And the sites linked here, sometimes with brief descriptions, are truly diverse, ranging from a page of traditional Jewish recipes (sponsored by Israeli Intelligence) to a node for South Asian-American female novelists. Basically this site speaks to anyone who isn't a straight white male - a redundant strategy in cyberspace.
Overall Rating: 14
The Condition of Education 1996
URL: http://www.ed.gov/NCES/pubs/ce/index.html
Category: Education
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
A search engine lets you fish this site for statistics on the "conditions of education." The idea is to provide a means to report on where progress is and isn't being made, to draw attention to emerging issues, and to inform the ongoing policy debate. A numbered list of blue links on a blinding white page points to a mountain of predictably disturbing data. These focus on educational issues ranging from "Access, Participation, and Progress" to "Climate, Classrooms, and Diversity." Aesthetically speaking, only a bureaucratic stooge or a Zen monk could stomach these pages for long.
Overall Rating: 14
Off the Rack
URL: http://www.enews.com/off_the_rack/
Category: Media
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
An "editorially independent" spin-off from the Electronic Newsstand, the Off the Rack Web zine has dedicated itself to "the exploration of magazines, media, and more." Its straightforward interface points to a handful of articles that are available elsewhere in far richer detail. But for those who need to be informed of what they "must read," who crave a "daily dose" of "hype heaven" and "hype hell," well, Off the Rack's got it all figured out for you. From its predictable Microsoft fluff piece to its rehash of the Unabomber story, Off the Rack's mix of articles says nothing about media except that its more anemic advocates have invaded the Web.
Overall Rating: 13
Clever dot Net
URL: http://www.clever.net/
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Clever.net is an Atlanta-based Web space merchant. Their home page features a striking green icon and links to a FAQ, a server demo, and a cgi that lets you check the availability of domain names. This last feature had me psyched, so much so that I tried it about ten times - to no avail. It doesn't work! When I linked to "the new FAQ", I found it inaccessible. Furthermore, browsing "the old FAQ" was disorienting as its navigation buttons seemed to load pages at random. What I did read was informative, but this site requires considerable work before it sells any space.
Overall Rating: 13
Cao Daiism
URL: http://www.centcon.com/~jnguyen/daiism.html
Category: Religion
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
The Cao Dai faith of South Vietnam was inaugurated in 1926. Universal and synthetic in character, its tenets derive from Asian and western religious and philosophical movements. Duc Cao Dai, or God the Father, is worshipped as the all-knowing eye behind the lords and prophets of all other faiths. Learn more in this asborbing essay by Merdeka Thien-Ly Huong Do. Removing the garish background will enhance the reading experience. At the time of my visit, page four concluded with the words: To be continued.
Overall Rating: 13
TUA Online
URL: http://apex.apex.net/users/jyoung/
Category: Zines
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Digging into its archives reveals that TUA Online began as a project in middle school journalism. Mission accomplished, TUA now devotes itself to the literary aspirations of local Paducah area students, publishing their fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and essays. In this sense, it's like a school newspaper without a school. Video game reviews share space with emotional high school poetry and somersaulting e-mail applets. A piece I read on irc etiquette that required constant lateral scrolling, and the frames needed some tightening. If TUA corrects these problems and exercises some editorial control, it could be an exciting forum.
Overall Rating: 13
Pitsco Technology Education
URL: http://www.askanexpert.com/wel.html
Category: Education
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
You'd expect more than a scroll-it script and a "weird science" graphic to announce the site of a company claiming to be the "leader in innovative technology education." And what Pitsco's site lacks in the whiz-bang department, it doesn't make up for anywhere else. Judging from the quality of its hubristic copy, you'd think poor spelling and grammar were cutting-edge educational strategies.The online version of its much-touted catalog provides descriptions of popular products like "Shuttle in Orbit Wall Mural," and "Tower Tester," as well as links to related sites, but this one needs work before it fulfills its own promises.
Overall Rating: 13
Granta
URL: http://www.granta.com
Category: Literature
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
This site is a dull advertisment for *Granta*, the magazine that brought you the likes of Amis, Rushdie and Ishiguro. You can read one essay from the current issue and browse the TOC's of past editions. But that's all. Then you're prompted to enter your credit card number for a subscription, which just goes to show how clueless they are. When I visited the site, it featured a press release for *Granta*'s forthcoming issue, one devoted to America's best young novelists, but which overlooks Richard Powers. Which simply underlines my previous point... A wasted opportunity.
Overall Rating: 12
Poets in Person
URL: http://www.wilmington.net/arts/poets
Category: Literature
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Somehow, this site evokes the ambience of a tacky suburban bus station. Focusing on the bland black and white photos of the poets doesn't help matters either. Having said that, the actual poetic content here is limited to audio files accompanied by insignificant biographical blurbs. Talents like Rita Dove, James Merrill and Sharon Olds deserve better representation. Background and text colors should be changed, the photos should be reformatted and the blinking phrases should be tossed immediately. Oh, ... and poetry should be added if at all possible.
Overall Rating: 12
Prayboy Magazine
URL: http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~arm/prayboy/
Category: Religion
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
21-year-old Andrew MacCormack has thrown together a bare-bones site to tackle "some of the controversial issues in Christianity today." Entertain, if you will, a short list of the authors' drowsy musings; perhaps you'll find words of wisdom in essays like "What is courage? Who is the bravest person ever?" or "Sin: What, why, who?" If not, you can exit via MacCormack's list of Christian links, leading to varied nodes including the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement and the Demon Possession Handook.
Overall Rating: 12
Ploughshares
URL: http://www.emerson.edu/ploughshares/
Category: Literature
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
With the help of guest editors like Seamus Heaney, Raymond Carver, and Rita Dove, *Ploughshares* has built a stable literary reputation since the seventies. These pages point to a few samples from the current issue as well as authors' bios and the means to ordering their books. But the works in *Ploughshares* are resistant to the Web's hypermedia mutations, and so their appearance in its midst seems oddly antisocial.Then again, if you happen to be living in Karachi, for instance, where copies of *Ploughshares* are hard to come by, this site would obviously come in handy.
Overall Rating: 12
The Cheat Web
URL: http://pages.prodigy.com/evilash/cheat.htm
Category: Education
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Here's a site for high school students needing a paper fast, and willing to cheat in order to pass a class. With the permission of their respective authors, webmaster Chris Salyers offers a few dozen essays in English (*The Scarlet Letter*), Science (earthworms) and History (Pompeii). According to the classification system, the material here is mostly B-level work by sophomores and juniors. In theory, you just add your name and presto -- a day at the beach. However, the files are poorly formatted, riddled with garbage and annoying to decipher, which makes doing homework seem appealing in comparison.
Overall Rating: 12
Honolulu CC Dinosaur Exhibit
URL: http://www.hcc.hawaii.edu/dinos/dinos.1.html
Category: Science
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
The Honolulu Community College bought some replicas of dinosaur bones from the New York Museum of Natural History so that its students could study T. Rex without having to leave the islands. Add Triceratops, Iguanadon and Stegasauros, and you have a bona fide exhibit, which is what these pages document. However, to make this a worthwhile online pitstop for the budding paleontologist, HCC needs to upload superior photographs and beef up the descriptions that only vaguely indicate things like "carnivore teeth" and "stereoscopic vision." The downloadable audio commentary is an effort, and, anyway, you'd probably rather read a book.
Overall Rating: 12
Cosmic Consciousness
URL: http://www.infi.net/~thobbs/
Category: Religion
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
While primarily a journey though the spiritual, this site also offers links to online HTML tutorials, pointers to freeware and shareware, and a link to Netscape (as this site uses Netscape extensions, and well I might add.) The spiritual component is indeed rich and content and well designed, with plenty of links to a slew of additional resources. Tim will tell you all about who he is, how he found spirituality, show you his mystical book list, and guide you through a gallery of fine religious images. Quite an accomplishment.
Overall Rating: 18
Cosmic Consciousness
URL: http://www.infi.net/~thobbs/
Category: Religion
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
While primarily a journey though the spiritual, this site also offers links to online HTML tutorials, pointers to freeware and shareware, and a link to Netscape (as this site uses Netscape extensions, and well I might add.) The spiritual component is indeed rich and content and well designed, with plenty of links to a slew of additional resources. Tim will tell you all about who he is, how he found spirituality, show you his mystical book list, and guide you through a gallery of fine religious images. Quite an accomplishment.
Overall Rating: 18
CCCnet
URL: http://www.cccnet.com/
Category: Education
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
Look out, Sesame Street, make way for the Internet and CCCnet. While CCCnet may not sport the likes of our yellow feathered friend, it's got just as much educational and entertainment value, and it's interactive! A leading publisher of multimedia education titles, Computer Curriculum Corporation wins the honor of being the first Web site to provide original, interactive curriculum online. And it's accomplished this task with exceptional grace. For starters, it looks great. CCN teamed up with the outstanding crew at vivid studios (http://www.vivid.com) in San Francisco to create a high-resolution, creative, and astonishingly quick site. It's powered by a monster SGI server to add to the speed factor, so even those with slower connections can reap the benefits of nice graphics. CCCnet offers lesson plans to teachers on a subscription basis -- though no fees have been set yet. It also supports these teachers with a message board to interact with other teachers and post questions (both technical and subjective). The super bonus: For two hours everyday, there's a tech person live, online, to answer questions immediately. CCCnet also encourages parents to get involved with a "school-home" section. This way, parents get to participate in what their kids are learning and offer help and encouragement. My favorite part about the site: It strives to teach children not only about the subjects at hand -- math, science, the environment, art, etc. -- but also how to use the Internet and maximize the Web. Many of the assignments involve children using the Web actively to complete projects -- using search engines, libraries, and other online resources to hunt down information. Students are also encouraged to network and communicate with students at other schools involved in the program. Very cool. The current online project, Energy Flow In Amazonia, teaches kids about life forms in the rainforest. The final assignment is to pick an organism (of the millions living in the Amazon, from protozoa to tiger), learn about it, and post its biography online, in a templated Web form. Kids from all across the country will be adding to the real-time food chain. Outstanding! This site is one of the most innovative Web accomplishments I've seen so far, and I can only hope it's positive precedence will be replicated many times over. Teachers, pay attention to these kats.
Overall Rating: 18
American Cancer Society
URL: http://www.cancer.org/
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
If there is a better-designed, more informative non-profit health site than this, I sure haven't seen it. Cancer.org for the American Cancer Society (ACS) is outstanding in just about every aspect. The layout and overall impact demand respect. And the amount of information archived here is astonishing. On the top level, the ACS highlights four main areas: Golf; SmokeScream (anti-smoking propaganda); Breast Cancer Network; and How To Contribute. I admit to being slightly confused at the significance of "golf" on a cancer information Web site, but it seems the ACS has a few clubs around the country that have a special deal for people wishing to contribute. Kinda dull, but wait, hang onto your seat for the rest of the ride -- it's long, colorful, and full of medical facts, statistics, research data, grant resource info, links, and more more more. Quite impressive is the SmokeScream area, which specifically targets younger net surfers. It's by far the brightest section with the coolest of cool graphics. Follow IkeMan, the hip icon-o-graphic mascot, as he gives us facts about smoking, invites us to play a "clean the lungs" trivia game, and answers questions in a "Dear Ike" column. It's a little funny that Ike, obviously a 30+ writer/editor type, is pretending to be a teenage hipster. He messes up a lot of the "cool" and "groovy" jargon with awkward, out-of-context type blunders, but overall, he tries. We'll give him points for that. And, besides, the message is good: Kids and adults shouldn't smoke cigarettes if they hope to breathe well for a long time. The SmokeScream area also plays some Netscape frames tricks, incorporates Macromedia's Shockwave, and offers a nice young people-focused link list. The Breast Cancer Network is one of the online authorities for women's health. It's packed with statistics about breast cancer -- who it affects, at what age, and survival rates. The site also offers diet and fitness recommendations, discusses several treatment options, and has a well-supported "recovery" section. The graphics here are simple, yet pleasing and quick. There will be no waiting around for pages or image maps to load. Nice. And while my Netscape browser tells me that transactions at cancer.org aren't secure, they still have an online donation form: Visa, MasterCard, American Express. Though I'm sure it's a safe as any of them, you might feel better committing to a little volunteer time instead -- call the 800 number for details. This is a win-win site!
Overall Rating: 18
Gay and Lesbian Utah Democrats
URL: http://members.aol.com/glud/
Category: Political
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
This is a nice example of how to disseminate information about a political organization. Not only does GLUD (Gay and Lesbian Utah Democrats) provide ample info about the group, with contact information and instructions on how to join, it also has some original content. GLUD has plenty of news clippings, updates about hot issues, and an action alert section to keep activists busy and informed.
Overall Rating: 18
Feminist Majority Foundation
URL: http://www.feminist.org/
Category: Political
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
While this may not be the best non-profit women's site (it proudly displays this award from Impact Online), it is the best feminist resource site I've found. News, urgent action alerts, links to university resources, online zines, and additional feminist Web sites are well-presented in a snazzy HTML package -- with forms, tables, image maps, etc. The "911" section is outstanding, with links to domestic violence and sexual harassment resources. It's regularly updated and should be a very important item on any feminist's bookmark list.
Overall Rating: 18
Republican Main Street
URL: http://www.rnc.org/
Category: Political
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
While most of us are completely bored with the main street/town hall/cyber community metaphor found on far too many Web sites, "Republican Main Street" pulls it off quite gracefully -- it's graphically strong and never overbearing. It's a site for all things Republican: video clips of Republicans on TV, regular updates on the Republican National Convention, bulletin boards, guestbooks, and live chats for starters. Especially interesting is the "school" section, which illustrates the history of the party and how to run for office. Well done.
Overall Rating: 18
Tres Bizzare
URL: http://ucunix.san.uc.edu/%7Esolkode/tres_bizar/
Category: Bizarre
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
Sometimes there is a case to be made that a site is good, even without a shred of original content. Those questing for "bizarre" sites on the Web no longer need to rely on casual coincidence (i.e., the occasional click to an unexpected surprise), but can now count on Dave's Tres Bizarre page. Dave hunts around for kooky sites and posts a new one each day. (He also archives the old ones.) And to his credit, the sites he chooses are, in fact, very kooky and creative, and will link you to the Web-O-Tainment you may be looking for. YeeHaw! Nice layout, too.
Overall Rating: 18
Widescreen Movie Center
URL: http://www.cheezmo.com/wsmc/
Category: Film
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
If you love letterbox film, this is your site. You'll find archives of letterbox films on TV and in the theaters, links to additional resources, and the real juice: a guide to which letterbox films will be on television each month (searchable by time zone and what cable channels, if any, you subscribe to). The layout is clean and simple, as the site is more of a functional database than anything else. And the logo at the bottom, Just Say No Steve Martin, is clever (in pretentious art film circles anyway).
Overall Rating: 18
SportsLine USA
URL: http://www.sportsline.com/
Category: Sports
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: Yes
Author: Blue Grrrl
This site is all about the red, white, and blue of American sports -- quite literally, the layout is almost exclusively fashioned after the US flag. It's got your baseball, football, hockey, and golf (as well as soccer, tennis, and thorough Olympic coverage.) SportsLine is part of the new paradigm of subscription based Web sites. Pay $4.95 per month for exclusive member-only content -- daily features, columns, and game coverage (newscaster style), or a one time $39.95 for an annual "box seat" subscription. While I'm wary of any site that charges for access, SportsLine also has a significant amount of free content to offer, such as news, updated (to the minute) scores, and live chats with the players. April's line up held chats with Joe Namath, Kevin Greene, and Michael Lewis to name a few. You can run for miles through the member-only content which, for sports fans, is worth the $4.95. Besides what's already been mentioned, SportsLine offers daily sports feeds from the associated press wire, links to contact sports heroes, and an audio arena, updated every morning at 8:00 AM. The audio section is exceptionally cool because it offers the files in Real Audio, .wav, and Streamworks formats! There are no strategic alliances to force you to use one or the other. Members also get to play fantasy sports games, like chat-based muds and moos -- be the pitcher on your favorite team or score the home run of a lifetime. The fantasy section is actually quite popular, and hosts a well-established community of players. That alone could be worth the monthly fee. Technically the site is running about par with the rest of the corporate lineup. There's some nice use of Forms and Tables; the CGI scripts are exceptionally fast; the chat is supported via Netscape's new chat client; and the transactions in the mall and registration are handled on Netscape secure servers. The baseball diamond animated gif is kind of nifty too. Overall, SportsLine gets a high five and is well worth a regular spot on your bookmark list, with or without the membership. -BG
Overall Rating: 18
BrowserWatch
URL: http://www.browserwatch.com/
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
For all your browser needs, go here. This is an outstanding resource for up to date info on tools to help you maximize browsing the Web. Learn about the latest VRML viewers, get reviews comparing and contrasting Netscape Vs. Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and what ever you do, visit the Plug-In corner. BrowserWatch will point you to the best plug-in's available for your Mac or PC. This site kicks ass. My only complaint is that sometimes the server is a little slow; but if you are patient, you will reap great rewards.
Overall Rating: 17
TimLand
URL: http://www.educ.drake.edu/ext/Tim/tim.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
Tim, he's 38, working at Drake University, has two kids, wants to get more involved in computers, and has a nifty logo of Hawaiian hula dancers on his front page. He's sincere enough and seems to genuinely enjoy HTML. But besides the self promotion as found on all vanity sites, he's got jokes (not just links, but actual content folks), Mac info, music, and juggling goop, neatly displayed in a nice little Table. Woo Woo!
Overall Rating: 17
IFIC Foundation
URL: http://ificinfo.health.org/
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
Looking for the latest on pesticides and food safety? Curious about nutionally related Gallup surveys results? The International Food Information Council is ready to serve you a mountain of facts, breaking that info into byte size chunks organized by who wants the data; reporters, medical professionals, consumers, educators and parents -- innovative and effective. Of course you'll also find member info, links, the newsletter, and a big FAQ. Expect to learn something here.
Overall Rating: 17
BrowserWatch
URL: http://www.browserwatch.com/
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
For all your browser needs, go here. This is an outstanding resource for up to date info on tools to help you maximize browsing the Web. Learn about the latest VRML viewers, get reviews comparing and contrasting Netscape Vs. Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and what ever you do, visit the Plug-In corner. BrowserWatch will point you to the best plug-in's available for your Mac or PC. This site kicks ass. My only complaint is that sometimes the server is a little slow; but if you are patient, you will reap great rewards.
Overall Rating: 17
TimLand
URL: http://www.educ.drake.edu/ext/Tim/tim.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
Tim, he's 38, working at Drake University, has two kids, wants to get more involved in computers, and has a nifty logo of Hawaiian hula dancers on his front page. He's sincere enough and seems to genuinely enjoy HTML. But besides the self promotion as found on all vanity sites, he's got jokes (not just links, but actual content folks), Mac info, music, and juggling goop, neatly displayed in a nice little Table. Woo Woo!
Overall Rating: 17
IFIC Foundation
URL: http://ificinfo.health.org/
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
Looking for the latest on pesticides and food safety? Curious about nutionally related Gallup surveys results? The International Food Information Council is ready to serve you a mountain of facts, breaking that info into byte size chunks organized by who wants the data; reporters, medical professionals, consumers, educators and parents -- innovative and effective. Of course you'll also find member info, links, the newsletter, and a big FAQ. Expect to learn something here.
Overall Rating: 17
Media Literacy On-Line
URL: http://interact.uoregon.edu/MediaLit/HomePage
Category: Education
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
Media Literacy is a movement to educate youth and adults about the media -- how to use and maximize its benefits, and how to guard against its tricks. The Web site is a stockpile collection of, you guessed it, media literacy-related information available online. While there isn't an extreme amount of original content filling up the bandwidth (nor will you find snazzy graphics or HTML 3.0 wizardry), it is outstanding as a collection of resource links in one convenient place. With smart organization and enough color to keep us from getting the "Netscape Gray" blues, this is a very valuable site.
Overall Rating: 17
Washington Gifted School of Communication
URL: http://www.misha.net/~desktop/washschl.htm
Category: Education
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
Can we talk adorable for a moment? This site is absolutely fun fun fun by way of enchanting graphics. Unfortunately, there isn't really much of interest otherwise, unless you're already involved with the school. The schedule of events, mission statement, and student bios are well done and seem helpful enough, but it's missing the original content that makes a site interesting and worth repeated visits. I say, post the student artwork and stories, and up the ante a bit! After all, it's a site for a school of communication whose students are gifted.
Overall Rating: 17
Distance Learning Laboratory (DLL)
URL: http://stargate.con-ed.howard.edu/WebPages/dll/
Category: Education
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
This site is part of a project to get historically black high schools and universities online with distance learning programs. The DLL wants to teach educators how to get online, set up Web servers, archive curriculum and so on. Good idea! Unfortunately, you have to call DLL or register online for the seminars and workshops in order to actually learn something. The site is merely an informational pamphlet. Perhaps DLL staff might consider practicing what they preach, and offer the seminars online.
Overall Rating: 17
The Giant Hatpin Collection
URL: http://wnc.com/hemsath/hatpin.htm
Category: Bizarre
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
Here is the work of someone who is either extremely patient or very obsessed. Or perhaps both. I can do nothing but revere this site, which functions as a tribute to one person's hatpin collection. View the top level group photo, or see the collection divided into categories -- animals, military, boy scout, safety awards, etc. But the clincher is: Each and every one of these buggers also has a close-up treatment photo, for detailed inspections, no doubt. It's quite a spectacle.
Overall Rating: 17
Froggy Page
URL: http://www.cs.yale.edu/HTML/YALE/CS/HyPlans/loosemore-sandra/froggy.html
Category: Bizarre
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
Ribbit. If you like frogs -- ribbit ribbit -- you'll certainly enjoy the Froggy Page, with its dozens and dozens of frog-related links and info. First, you get froggy pictures. Mostly, the image section consists of links to other sites that contain frog GIFs and JPEGs. But then, there are froggy sounds, froggy songs, and froggy tales -- "The Toad Prince," and "The Wind in the Willows," to name a few. The frog anatomy section will fulfill the needs of the scientist within and, of course, there's quite a list of Kermit thee frog links, too. And remember, on the Internet, nobody knows you're a frog...
Overall Rating: 17
Screen Shots
URL: http://www.screenshots.com/
Category: Film
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
With slick design and smooth graphics, Screen Shots is a quick eye catcher. It has the look and feel of professional quality and corporate backing, but to my surprise, I found no advertising banners or distracting sales pitches. Catch up with your favorite actors and directors with RealAudio interviews, goof around with a Hollywood trivia quiz, or peruse new release film reviews. The site is fairly new, so some areas are still rather small, but to our advantage, what they've got so far is very good.
Overall Rating: 17
The Official Hair Dyeing Page
URL: http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~mizraith/dyeing.html
Category: Bizarre
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
Chameleons, this is it! As one who has sported hair in every rainbow shade from pink to blue, I have to say the hair dyeing page is on the mark. With discussions of the relative merits of permanent vs. semi-permanent dyes, brand recommendations, and maintenance tips, this page will beyond doubt assist your color change needs. It's not an exhaustive source of info, but it's got the basics that Lady Clairol just ain't gonna tell you. The blending tips are awesome!
Overall Rating: 17
Ride!
URL: http://www.ridemag.com/
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
Well, if you have a 17" monitor (or bigger!) this page looks great. If you have a T1 connection, it loads in only a minute. But egads, talk about overdone for the wee bitty consumer with a 28.8bps modem! Count on cooking and eating a full bag of microwave popcorn before this puppy loads. Content-wise it's huge too, with all sorts of useful info, regularly updated. Chats, software to download, job postings and horse industry news, all at your beck and call. The history of the Equestrian series in the feature section was super interesting too. GiddyUp.
Overall Rating: 17
Amber
URL: http://www.emporia.edu/S/www/earthsci/amber/amber.htm
Category: Science
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
While this site may not be the smoothest in layout, or spiffy HTML wizardry, I am thoroughly impressed to find a site on the net about amber that does not reference Jurassic Park or fossilized insects on the first page. Phew. Instead, what you'll find is a fairly comprehensive guide to all things amber; it's history, uses, and physical properties to name a few. The myths section is especially cool.
Overall Rating: 16
Phyllis Light's Healing
URL: http://www.ccsi.com/~phylight/
Category: Religion
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
I have a bias, and that bias is against pastel rainbow backgrounds with cosmological undertones. This is mind, Phyllis's Healing Page is not recommended for the new age skeptic. Phyllis is author to many a mystical book, including *Prince Charming Lives*, and *The Light Realization Process*. Read essays about her "telepathic healing gift" or check out her "Latest Cosmic Insights." There's a lot here, though more of the site, unfortunately, is about self promotion than spirituality.
Overall Rating: 16
Hot 100 Web sites Updated Weekly
URL: http://www.web21.com/services/hot100/index.html
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
Itchin to know what's hot on the Web? This is an interesting little resource that may not sport the fancy graphics of Lycos, but who cares, so long as it's useful! And that it is. Every week the site updates surfers on the top 100 Web sites -- the sites with the most hits. While there are no descriptions, and minimal editorial content here, it's a good place to get a feel for what has been successful in Web space.
Overall Rating: 16
Amber
URL: http://www.emporia.edu/S/www/earthsci/amber/amber.htm
Category: Science
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
While this site may not be the smoothest in layout, or spiffy HTML wizardry, I am thoroughly impressed to find a site on the net about amber that does not reference Jurassic Park or fossilized insects on the first page. Phew. Instead, what you'll find is a fairly comprehensive guide to all things amber; it's history, uses, and physical properties to name a few. The myths section is especially cool.
Overall Rating: 16
Phyllis Light's Healing
URL: http://www.ccsi.com/~phylight/
Category: Religion
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
I have a bias, and that bias is against pastel rainbow backgrounds with cosmological undertones. This is mind, Phyllis's Healing Page is not recommended for the new age skeptic. Phyllis is author to many a mystical book, including *Prince Charming Lives*, and *The Light Realization Process*. Read essays about her "telepathic healing gift" or check out her "Latest Cosmic Insights." There's a lot here, though more of the site, unfortunately, is about self promotion than spirituality.
Overall Rating: 16
Hot 100 Web sites Updated Weekly
URL: http://www.web21.com/services/hot100/index.html
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
Itchin to know what's hot on the Web? This is an interesting little resource that may not sport the fancy graphics of Lycos, but who cares, so long as it's useful! And that it is. Every week the site updates surfers on the top 100 Web sites -- the sites with the most hits. While there are no descriptions, and minimal editorial content here, it's a good place to get a feel for what has been successful in Web space.
Overall Rating: 16
Air-Medical
URL: http://www.cris.com/~Seaox/
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
How exciting it would be to perform medical procedures of critical importance in helicopters and planes. I was instantly drawn to a site about being a flight nurse. Air-Medical covers education requirements, archives a monthly newsletter about the profession, links resources and organizations, and has a classified section for job openings at Florida Hospital. The design isn't so brilliantly executed; in fact, it's rather bland, but the info is interesting.
Overall Rating: 16
Secret History of the United States 1962 1995
URL: http://ucunix.san.uc.edu/~taylorrm/
Category: Political
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
Any site boasting to reveal secrets is A.O.K by me! And secrets about U.S. history are even more entertaining, as the small details that link assassins to Hollywood to dead presidents and UFOs have always been especially fascinating. While this site may not boast an extraordinary repertoire of HTML bells and whistles (no color, no tricks, and few stylie graphics), it's phat with interesting text and links. Search the site by major topics -- Nuclear, UFOs, Drugs, National Debt, and civil rights, or click on a year. The site creator also built the conspiracy pages at http://www.uc.edu/~taylorrm, go figure.
Overall Rating: 16
Troquista Home Page
URL: http://www.ph.utexas.edu/~ldevlin/troquista.html
Category: Bizarre
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
Arm your guns, we're warriors in a monster truck shoot-out. The Troquistas have joined forces with other anti-Doctress fanatics to bring us this site -- one of many, anti-Neutopian Web pages. (The Doctress is a bizarre Usenet newsgroup personality who spews utopian-like visions she calls Neutopia.) While the Troquista sect of the rebel force has a small page with some less-than-savvy design skills (links to ASCII text and a distracting background), it's possible you might not care about graphics by this point. The content is so very hysterical that it *should* be read. Outstanding!
Overall Rating: 16
Left-Wing Films
URL: http://ccme-mac4.bsd.uchicago.edu/DSADocs/Films.html
Category: Film
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
Despite some borderline poor judgment selections (I'd hardly call "A League of Their Own," with Madonna, a "left-wing" film), this is a decent list of films (with hyperlinks when available). The main purpose is to provide collectives and student organizations with a list of titles to present at campus theaters and events. The site is broken down with internal anchors (it's one long page, with periodic jump points to avoid the nap-on-the-scroll bar scenario), which divide sections -- environment, feminism, sexual freedom, and so on.
Overall Rating: 16
Juggler's World
URL: http://www.hal.com/services/juggle/jw/
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
At first I didn't get it. What are all these squares for and what is Juggler's World? As it turns, Juggler's World is a magazine that the staff has decided to archive fully on the Web. And, after popping through the extensive content that's there already (15 issues fully hypertexted and more to come soon), I decided it was actually a very clever way to organize that much data. Bonus: as big as the images are, the download is relatively quick. So if you are among the fans of all things that spin from the juggler's hands, check this one out.
Overall Rating: 16
Schwa
URL: http://fringeware.com/SchwaRoot/Schwa.html
Category: Bizarre
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
What might be bizarre to you is deep brain food to some, and satire to still others. Schwa is whatever you want it to be, a movement of anti-culture or a space alien freak phenomena. The site is as ambiguous as the "movement" itself. Pictures of cartoony little grays (space creatures with big eyes) adorn the Gallery, while sound clips, press clips, and Schwa merchandise fill up the rest. It needs some color, and a suped-up spaceship logo gyrating across the top might be nice. But as far as originality and fun factors go, Schwa rocks!
Overall Rating: 15
Online Movie Guide
URL: http://www.losangeles.com/
Category: Film
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
The first impression: gaudy. The second impression: confusing. But upon deeper inspection and reckless clicking, I found some useful information about films on TV and video, and reviews of films in theaters in Los Angeles. However, the reviews section is an atrocious eye sore -- there's an obvious attempt to get everything on one page, even if it means requiring a magnifying lens to read it. Ouch. This service is also available for Chicago (http://www.chicagowww.com/), Denver (http://www.denver.com/), and New York (http://www.newyorkwww.com/).
Overall Rating: 15
rec.arts.movies archive
URL: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/mleone/web/movies.html
Category: Film
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
A FAQ is a FAQ and for the most part, neat-o images and suave design tactics are not to be expected. So, as suspected, this archive of the rec.arts.movies Usenet newsgroup is relatively dull to look at. Straight gray backgrounds with blue links to info about specific films (presented a la ASCII text, of course) is pretty much par for the course. Nonetheless, if you're a follower of the newsgroup or particularly interested in famous quotes, Oscars, or a few specific films, such as Resevoir Dogs or The Looney Toons, it's pretty packed.
Overall Rating: 15
Encounters
URL: http://www.westworld.com/~ah.ha/extra.html
Category: Bizarre
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
Here we have a man who has been visited by Zoonch, a propheteering space alien shedding light on the path to peace and joy. It sounds a little too Haight Ashbury 1968, but nonetheless, it's an interesting read. But guess what, kids? That's all you get. It's one *long* page of text excerpts from a book about this experience with Zoonch that the site creator no doubt wants us to buy -- 1-800 number included. So, yes, it's bizarre, and unless you are super interested in hippie space creatures, it's also useless.
Overall Rating: 14
Chris James's Ham Radio Page
URL: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/3685
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
Sometimes reviewing is just plain hard. Here we have a page that's the product of some obvious effort. The guy likes ham radios, has enough techno-smarts to employ some javascript, and can even manipulate images. The page's *content*, however, consists of ten or so links to ham radio stuff, some search engines (that we know about already, if we've managed to find this obscure little site), and urghhhhh (!!!) blinking text. Well, I suppose if you are morally opposed to search engines or something, this might be a nice place to look up *other* ham radio sites. Other than that, ...
Overall Rating: 14
SALVO 12 8 13
URL: http://www.salvo.com/index.cgi
Category: Media
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Dubbed as an "American Survival Guide," Salvo salutes freedom of expression with a double-barreled shotgun verbal attack. Read Daily News Bite for an unabashed analysis of hourly happenings from news on Midwestern vampire children to convicted government officials. If you have Shockwave, SALVO abuses it fully with an interesting an Simon Says Electronic Game graphic. Read rants on ozone depletion, over population, land use, homelessness, domestic violence, Internet censorship, militia madness and more. BLUE LIGHT
Overall Rating: 18
Welcome to EXTRA
URL: http://www.extratv.com/
Category: Media
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Extra! Extra! Get your daily dose of entertainment news and gossip here! Based on the entertainment television news show of the same name, the EXTRA site has multimedia sections on everything from discussions with male models from Miami (hear in their own words what they look for in a lass) to exclusive interviews with hip movie stars such as Jackie Chan. Look up the release date of new movies or read gossip off the online newsletter. The site is table-happy and has cute push-pull animation boxes to add glitz to the grapevine.
Overall Rating: 18
The Official Lenny Kravitz Site
URL: http://www.lennykravitz.com/
Category: Music
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Rock and Roll is not dead on the Web and The Official Lenny Kravitz site proves it. Groove to his latest songs or watch snippets of videos and television interviews. Lenny talks about his music, style and family. (His mom was Helen on the television show, The Jeffersons.) The same folks responsible for the Megadeth Arizona site wow Web heads again with the similar eye-boggling graphics and design. BLUE LIGHT
Overall Rating: 18
z Publishing Welcome
URL: http://www.zpub.com/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
See San Francisco z-style. z Publishing, an extensive Web directory of places to visit in San Francisco could make both a raver and a grandma smile with glee. Read the history behind the United States' only self-proclaimed emperor or the devastating Pt. Reyes National Seashore Fire. Other San Francisco topics include the Burning Man archives, San Francisco Cacophony Society, and media z (a resource for media folks.) Other sections on z Publishing include unofficial pages for Pope John Paul II, Bill Gates, and Bill Clinton. BLUE LIGHT
Overall Rating: 18
Typo.Com
URL: http://www.typo.com/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Any Net grrl who was once Miss Vermont Photogenic and a writer/editor for a multitude of magazines including MacHome Journal, Computer Life,...and yes, The Net...has to be cool. Read some of her articles about Tupperware parties, domain names and heterosexual relationships. Crystal also lends newbies a hypertext hand in designing their own Web site, with advice and links to useful shareware. Dip into Water's site for a refreshing look at the Web. Blue Light
Overall Rating: 18
SALVO 12 8 13
URL: http://www.salvo.com/index.cgi
Category: Media
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Dubbed as an "American Survival Guide," Salvo salutes freedom of expression with a double-barreled shotgun verbal attack. Read Daily News Bite for an unabashed analysis of hourly happenings from news on Midwestern vampire children to convicted government officials. If you have Shockwave, SALVO abuses it fully with an interesting an Simon Says Electronic Game graphic. Read rants on ozone depletion, over population, land use, homelessness, domestic violence, Internet censorship, militia madness and more. BLUE LIGHT
Overall Rating: 18
Welcome to EXTRA
URL: http://www.extratv.com/
Category: Media
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Extra! Extra! Get your daily dose of entertainment news and gossip here! Based on the entertainment television news show of the same name, the EXTRA site has multimedia sections on everything from discussions with male models from Miami (hear in their own words what they look for in a lass) to exclusive interviews with hip movie stars such as Jackie Chan. Look up the release date of new movies or read gossip off the online newsletter. The site is table-happy and has cute push-pull animation boxes to add glitz to the grapevine.
Overall Rating: 18
The Official Lenny Kravitz Site
URL: http://www.lennykravitz.com/
Category: Music
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Rock and Roll is not dead on the Web and The Official Lenny Kravitz site proves it. Groove to his latest songs or watch snippets of videos and television interviews. Lenny talks about his music, style and family. (His mom was Helen on the television show, The Jeffersons.) The same folks responsible for the Megadeth Arizona site wow Web heads again with the similar eye-boggling graphics and design. BLUE LIGHT
Overall Rating: 18
z Publishing Welcome
URL: http://www.zpub.com/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
See San Francisco z-style. z Publishing, an extensive Web directory of places to visit in San Francisco could make both a raver and a grandma smile with glee. Read the history behind the United States' only self-proclaimed emperor or the devastating Pt. Reyes National Seashore Fire. Other San Francisco topics include the Burning Man archives, San Francisco Cacophony Society, and media z (a resource for media folks.) Other sections on z Publishing include unofficial pages for Pope John Paul II, Bill Gates, and Bill Clinton. BLUE LIGHT
Overall Rating: 18
Typo.Com
URL: http://www.typo.com/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Any Net grrl who was once Miss Vermont Photogenic and a writer/editor for a multitude of magazines including MacHome Journal, Computer Life,...and yes, The Net...has to be cool. Read some of her articles about Tupperware parties, domain names and heterosexual relationships. Crystal also lends newbies a hypertext hand in designing their own Web site, with advice and links to useful shareware. Dip into Water's site for a refreshing look at the Web. Blue Light
Overall Rating: 18
Welcome to ArtsLink
URL: http://pathfinder.com/@@sRMXEnH1hAMAQIlr/twep/artslink/
Category: Art
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
With all the independent art sites on the net, Time Warner Electronic Publishing finally took the creative plunge and returned from the underground with ArtsLink. ArtsLink provides an Artists-in-Residence section that displays a wide range of material, including abstract computer algorithm images, controversial posters about racism, colorful charcoal sketches of women, and QuickTime VR multimedia pieces. Read about projects in development, and catch up on cultural issues in the Morfogen and Associates News section. ArtsLink also wants visitors to spearhead its bulletin board discussions on topics such as the influence of AIDS in art, and performance art advice.
Overall Rating: 18
New York Times
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
Category: Media
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
The News York Times prints all the news that's fit to print... online. This is one of the best national daily newspapers online that uses hypertext to explain articles in-depth. Read about the latest news, or go into a feature about Internet legislation. The newspaper requires you register at the beginning in order to read everything, but it's worth it! The photos capture moments of tragedy and triumph. Who said newspapers were going out of style?
Overall Rating: 18
Blender Web Popspeak Slang Dictionary
URL: http://www.blender.com/blender1.1/digest/popspeak/popspeak2.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Is her scarf too ABBA? Do you have a Barbie-Dream Boyfriend? Is the temp worker a bit more Nutrasweet than you expected? Visit the Blender Web Popspeak Slang Dictionary for a crash course in slang and hipster lingo. Each letter in the alphabet has a slang term, definition, corresponding graphic, an example of the word used in conversation and even a audio file to hear proper pronunciation. Many of the terms derive from television shows ("He's such an Urkel!"), movies, and music. Update your vocab or you could be considered to be a regular John-Boy.
Overall Rating: 17
Richard Downs
URL: http://www.earthlink.net/~downsart/
Category: Art
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
For the best honey go to the bee hive. For the best art go to The Hive, the virtual studio of illustrator Richard Downs. See both abstract illustrations and smooth 3D design that Downs was commissioned to do for such big names as Disney, Apple computers, and Business Week magazine. The dark tale, "The Masque of the Red Death," is also illustrated by Downs in a graphic novel form online.
Overall Rating: 17
Mythopoeia
URL: http://www.myth.com/mythopoeia/mythopoeia1.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Enter the realm of morbid Bible tales where John the Baptist is a decapitated head surrounded in fruit and Jesus glows in the dark on a neon cross. Mythopoeia mutates myth into digital emotion and sensory satisfaction. Aside from Biblical characters, the site illustrates bios of the Furies, vampires, sea nymphs, Sleeping Beauty, Bird of Paradise and more. Real life needs to be this artistic. BLUE LIGHT
Overall Rating: 17
Seattle's Center on Contemporary Art
URL: http://www.subpop.com/coca/
Category: Art
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
A large case of pink plastic found objects would normally be found in the "free" box at a garage sale, but at Seattle's Center on Contemporary Art it's a mixed media gallery installation. Every subject from the O.J. Simpson trials to portraits of Oscar Wilde are captured in paint, plaster, metal, and sometimes even plastic junk. Of the artists featured, CoCA focuses on a mishmash of popular art scenesters such as the Survival Research Laboratories and Hernandez brothers, as well as the more obscure folks.
Overall Rating: 17
High Museum of Art
URL: http://isotropic.com/highmuse/highhome.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Atlanta isn't just the home for the 1996 Summer Olympics, but also it's considered the grande casa of African, American, contemporary, decorative, European art, and photography at The High Museum of Art. The museum features more than 10,000 objects of art but the online site only has a limited number photos and brief descriptions of artifacts and paintings. Most of the content has more to do with the museum's services than the actual exhibits.
Overall Rating: 17
Design Vision
URL: http://w3.one.net/~mtgarvin/
Category: Art
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Starving artists would never have trouble finding a job if their resume and portfolio looked like M. Todd Garvin's Design Vision. Garvin is a Cincinnati area designer and artist who knows the power of the Internet and uses it to the fullest with his amazing eye candy portfolio. Look at his designs for packaging, logos, kiosks, multimedia presentations, and even a brand identity for a carbonated, vitamin-enriched fruit drink. Garvin isn't afraid of exploiting Shockwave either, though he does use a "Beavis and Butthead" sound byte on the first page. Yiesh.
Overall Rating: 17
Enoch's Art & Design
URL: http://jumpnet.uoregon.edu/enoch/ENOCH'S_connection_point.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Not all artists have to be worm food to have a gallery dedicated to their work. As a University of Oregon undergrad art/design student, Enoch has his "flat" art on display for the Web to ogle. Of his subjects, family and friend portraits seem to prevail, but Enoch creates some amazing nudes too. If curiosity gnaws at your bones, Enoch will give you the history behind each piece if you e-mail him.
Overall Rating: 17
NewsPage Home Page
URL: http://www.newspage.com/
Category: Media
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Pick up the daily business news from over 600 information sources without having to pull a big truck up to the corner newsstand. NewsPage has the latest news on computer hardware, software, data communications, telecommunications, energy, media, travel, insurance, environmental services, business management and more. Taking articles direct from wire services, this subscription-based service is excellent for text-only news, but don,t expect any bells and whistles. Check out the funny/hard-to-believe news section for the interesting stuff.
Overall Rating: 17
TST ON-DEMAND
URL: http://www.tstradio.com/
Category: Media
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Turn your computer into a talk radio Mecca with TST ON-DEMAND. Taylor Subscription Talk is an audio on-demand service that lets users subscribe to talk radio programs on subjects such as politics, health, alternative lifestyles, arts, entertainment and news. The site itself serves as an advertisement to convince Internet surfers they need a talk show playing on their computers as they wander through the Web. The only interactive quality on TST,s Web site is the Real Audio download of the demo. The graphics look like they were kidnapped from Apple,s ill-fated eWorld service.
Overall Rating: 17
Peeps
URL: http://www.peeps.com/
Category: Music
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
The Peeps site has nothing to do with those sugar-coated, pastel marshmallow chicks only sold around Easter. Cool, smooth urban sounds are the focus of this Hip-Hop nation spot on the Web. Get get-up-to-date info on BMG artists such as Deborah Cox, R. Kelly, Monica, Notorious B.I.G., Omar, Chantay Savage, Chef Raekwon and TLC. Bios, photos, audio and video files are available on all the bands for a complete multimedia experience.
Overall Rating: 17
1996 Centennial Olympic Games
URL: http://www.atlanta.olympic.org/
Category: Sports
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Everyone wants a piece of the 1996 Olympic Games and IBM is no exception. Look at its site for cute animations of blinking stars and flying Olympic tickets available to purchase online. Search the program for schedules of the 26 sporting events or learn more about the 1996 Olympic Arts Festival. Watch out for glitches in the system where it won't let users access the fun side. Maybe someday debugging Web sites will be an Olympic event!
Overall Rating: 17
Taylor Made Golf
URL: http://www.taylormadegolf.com/
Category: Sports
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Taylor Made Golf is no more than a commercial for selling metal driving golf clubs. Read the news to see which pro golfer won a tournament with the new Bubble Burner golf club or study up on the history of the company. The only section that seems void of the "buy our clubs" message is "It's Your Shot" where golfers can share tips, stories and jokes. Download golf games and screen savers in the "Gimmies" section (after filling out a survey.) Even though the site is well-designed, the content is still swinging aimlessly in the sand trap.
Overall Rating: 17
A digital canvas
URL: http://www.primenet.com/~vytasg/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
View heavenly planets without a telescope. A digital canvas is the Web night sky painted with green spikes, yellow orbs, and blue 3D stars. The canvas becomes an online Rorschach test as images of blurry circus elephants and floating tops decorate the site. This is abstract art at its best. Enjoy the confusion!
Overall Rating: 17
Selvia's Art Cave
URL: http://www.dnaco.net/~ivanjs/jshp.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Aside from touring the computer art gallery featuring portraits of skulls, fractals and nudes, visitors to Selvia's Art Cave can also watch a random alien fashion show or have a look at bad starship designs rejected by the Federation. Read true science stories about ham radio and integrated circuits. The art isn't worthy of any Dali award, but the hodgepodge of content and graphics make this Cave a site fit for any bat fixin' to byte into a digital gallery.
Overall Rating: 17
Rembrandt
URL: http://amsterdam.park.org/Netherlands/pavilions/culture/rembrandt/
Category: Art
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
The long-deceased Dutch artist comes alive in this multimedia presentation of the Rembrandt Research Project. View Quicktime video explanations of "The Jewish Bride" or listen to project director, Ernst van de Wetering discuss various Rembrandt works. Detailed papers on "The Rough Manner: Rembrandt & Titian" and "Paint Surface & the Evocation of Space." Read how research found Rembrandt forgeries by dating not the paint but the wood panels behind the canvas.
Overall Rating: 17
6168
URL: http://mindlink.net/ph/
Category: Art
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Canadian artists Peter Horvath and Sharon Matarazzo pool their talents and birth dates to form the site, 6168. From the very first page, you can tell designers were in charge of the site with its object-orientated, almost textless index. Take a journey into the mind of an immigrant and lost lover in two non-linear photo essays. 6168 incorporates both new media and old-fashioned snapshots to create an unique art form.
Overall Rating: 17
Ken Christian's Photo Gallery
URL: http://www.ebicom.net/~kenchr/gallery/homepage.htm
Category: Art
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Give a guy a camera and twenty years later he's bound to have a few good pictures. Kenneth Christian served as a photographer, editor and publisher for The Banner-Independent, a small weekly in Booneville, Mississippi, from 1975 to 1995. The photo subjects range from cute little kids to not-so-sweet car wrecks. Photojournalists and art lovers alike will appreciate Ken Christian's concentration on detail as he focuses in on real life with only a camera in hand.
Overall Rating: 17
Richard Downs
URL: http://www.earthlink.net/~downsart/
Category: Art
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
For the best honey go to the bee hive. For the best art go to The Hive, the virtual studio of illustrator Richard Downs. See both abstract illustrations and smooth 3D design that Downs was commissioned to do for such big names as Disney, Apple computers, and Business Week magazine. The dark tale, "The Masque of the Red Death," is also illustrated by Downs in a graphic novel form online.
Overall Rating: 17
Mythopoeia
URL: http://www.myth.com/mythopoeia/mythopoeia1.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Enter the realm of morbid Bible tales where John the Baptist is a decapitated head surrounded in fruit and Jesus glows in the dark on a neon cross. Mythopoeia mutates myth into digital emotion and sensory satisfaction. Aside from Biblical characters, the site illustrates bios of the Furies, vampires, sea nymphs, Sleeping Beauty, Bird of Paradise and more. Real life needs to be this artistic. BLUE LIGHT
Overall Rating: 17
Seattle's Center on Contemporary Art
URL: http://www.subpop.com/coca/
Category: Art
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
A large case of pink plastic found objects would normally be found in the "free" box at a garage sale, but at Seattle's Center on Contemporary Art it's a mixed media gallery installation. Every subject from the O.J. Simpson trials to portraits of Oscar Wilde are captured in paint, plaster, metal, and sometimes even plastic junk. Of the artists featured, CoCA focuses on a mishmash of popular art scenesters such as the Survival Research Laboratories and Hernandez brothers, as well as the more obscure folks.
Overall Rating: 17
High Museum of Art
URL: http://isotropic.com/highmuse/highhome.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Atlanta isn't just the home for the 1996 Summer Olympics, but also it's considered the grande casa of African, American, contemporary, decorative, European art, and photography at The High Museum of Art. The museum features more than 10,000 objects of art but the online site only has a limited number photos and brief descriptions of artifacts and paintings. Most of the content has more to do with the museum's services than the actual exhibits.
Overall Rating: 17
Enoch's Art & Design
URL: http://jumpnet.uoregon.edu/enoch/ENOCH'S_connection_point.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Not all artists have to be worm food to have a gallery dedicated to their work. As a University of Oregon undergrad art/design student, Enoch has his "flat" art on display for the Web to ogle. Of his subjects, family and friend portraits seem to prevail, but Enoch creates some amazing nudes too. If curiosity gnaws at your bones, Enoch will give you the history behind each piece if you e-mail him.
Overall Rating: 17
NewsPage Home Page
URL: http://www.newspage.com/
Category: Media
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Pick up the daily business news from over 600 information sources without having to pull a big truck up to the corner newsstand. NewsPage has the latest news on computer hardware, software, data communications, telecommunications, energy, media, travel, insurance, environmental services, business management and more. Taking articles direct from wire services, this subscription-based service is excellent for text-only news, but don,t expect any bells and whistles. Check out the funny/hard-to-believe news section for the interesting stuff.
Overall Rating: 17
TST ON-DEMAND
URL: http://www.tstradio.com/
Category: Media
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Turn your computer into a talk radio Mecca with TST ON-DEMAND. Taylor Subscription Talk is an audio on-demand service that lets users subscribe to talk radio programs on subjects such as politics, health, alternative lifestyles, arts, entertainment and news. The site itself serves as an advertisement to convince Internet surfers they need a talk show playing on their computers as they wander through the Web. The only interactive quality on TST,s Web site is the Real Audio download of the demo. The graphics look like they were kidnapped from Apple,s ill-fated eWorld service.
Overall Rating: 17
Peeps
URL: http://www.peeps.com/
Category: Music
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
The Peeps site has nothing to do with those sugar-coated, pastel marshmallow chicks only sold around Easter. Cool, smooth urban sounds are the focus of this Hip-Hop nation spot on the Web. Get get-up-to-date info on BMG artists such as Deborah Cox, R. Kelly, Monica, Notorious B.I.G., Omar, Chantay Savage, Chef Raekwon and TLC. Bios, photos, audio and video files are available on all the bands for a complete multimedia experience.
Overall Rating: 17
1996 Centennial Olympic Games
URL: http://www.atlanta.olympic.org/
Category: Sports
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Everyone wants a piece of the 1996 Olympic Games and IBM is no exception. Look at its site for cute animations of blinking stars and flying Olympic tickets available to purchase online. Search the program for schedules of the 26 sporting events or learn more about the 1996 Olympic Arts Festival. Watch out for glitches in the system where it won't let users access the fun side. Maybe someday debugging Web sites will be an Olympic event!
Overall Rating: 17
Taylor Made Golf
URL: http://www.taylormadegolf.com/
Category: Sports
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Taylor Made Golf is no more than a commercial for selling metal driving golf clubs. Read the news to see which pro golfer won a tournament with the new Bubble Burner golf club or study up on the history of the company. The only section that seems void of the "buy our clubs" message is "It's Your Shot" where golfers can share tips, stories and jokes. Download golf games and screen savers in the "Gimmies" section (after filling out a survey.) Even though the site is well-designed, the content is still swinging aimlessly in the sand trap.
Overall Rating: 17
A digital canvas
URL: http://www.primenet.com/~vytasg/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
View heavenly planets without a telescope. A digital canvas is the Web night sky painted with green spikes, yellow orbs, and blue 3D stars. The canvas becomes an online Rorschach test as images of blurry circus elephants and floating tops decorate the site. This is abstract art at its best. Enjoy the confusion!
Overall Rating: 17
Art Deco-Erte Museum
URL: http://www.webcom.com/~tuazon/ajarts/erte.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Creating his first successful costume design at the age of five, Erte began his career as one of the foremost fashion designers of the early twentieth century. The Art Deco Erte Museum displays some of Erte's most famous designs for the Folies-Bergere in Paris, including a costume for the Diamond in "Les Pierres Precieuses" and a silver lame costume, complete with pearl wings and ebony-plumed cap, that Erte himself wore to a ball. A Web site never looked so fashionable.
Overall Rating: 17
Babel
URL: http://WWW.BABELNY.COM/
Category: Art
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Artists link the past to the future through oil paintings, sketches, sculptures, and now the Web. Babel encourages visitors to follow artists such as Melissa Marks into the Garden area, where her online exhibit, "Volitia --The Abstract Vagina," resides. And the Babylon Lottery section explores issues of the female body and features art by Karen Yasinsky and Laura Watts. This art site may wow you with its creative design -- forms, and nice graphics and layout, but it's still rather thin and slightly confusing.
Overall Rating: 17
Cusimano: Surrealist Artist
URL: http://www.terraport.net/archiavv/
Category: Art
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Surrealist art isn't always a myriad of melting clocks. On the Cusimano: Surrealist Artist site, visitors wander through six galleries that feature paintings and drawings of desert roses, carousel horses, and levitating lips. The Canadian artist, Joseph Cusimano, explains every painting to help art lovers grasp the meaning behind an image as perplexing as his human tree. Cusimano, more than his art, resembles Dali (it's the mustache). Visit this site for a good dose of bizarre art and metaphysical madness.
Overall Rating: 17
New York Trash
URL: http://www.nytrash.com/
Category: Media
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Most tourists remember New York City for its smell more than for its taste, and online, it's no different. New York Trash is the seedy guide to a city with no party limits. Get the dirt on the bands, bars, and behavior that keeps New York City fun and trashy. The guide a la dumpster is sectioned off by migraines (weird rants), earaches (music reviews), eyesores (party pics), and cramps (Internet links and guest book). Even Blondie's Debbie Harry has her own section of photos and handwritten lyric scans. Dive into this dumpster site for the goods on the Rotten Apple.
Overall Rating: 17
The Spot
URL: http://www.thespot.com/
Category: Media
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Seven strangers live in a house... This is their story of love, lust, and landlords. Haven't we heard this story before? The Spot tries to accomplish what MTV's "The Real World" doesn't have the guts to do -- take a bunch of whiny kids living together and make them gripe online. Ironically, The Spot isn't as "real" as MTV, and it has even more advertising attached. The introduction explains how dead celebs such as Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, and Jim Morrison hung out at the real Spot house. Egads. The design layout is mind-blowing, but the overly contrived characters all might as well be brain-dead.
Overall Rating: 17
Culture Zone
URL: http://www.culturezone.com/
Category: Media
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
If you feel like a hick without hauteur, maybe a trip to the Culture Zone is what you need to feel hip again. The mass of image maps and eye candy promises to restore online excitement sucked out by other not-so-savvy sites. However, unless you have an ISDN line, prepare to wait a while for graphics to load. Speed along the Wailing Highway or hop the Groovy Train to download alternative music sound samples. Read casino poetry in the Celluloid Cafe. The Zone has so many twists and turns, a pro cybersurfer could drown in an entertainment tidal wave.
Overall Rating: 17
Ferndale
URL: http://www.ferndale.com/
Category: Media
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
If you're already bored with talk show guests ripping out their hearts to entertain viewers, check out the Ferndale Webumentary site. This is a cross between a talk show and a soap opera, masking itself as an authentic Web experiment. Listen in on "real" therapy sessions via RealAudio, or snoop through staff and resident journals. Take online personality tests and chat with one of the residents. The staff at Ferndale wants to hear your deepest secrets. Many of the therapy sessions try to be humorous when they're just hooey, but the journal entries will make you wonder why some of the staff members weren't committed with the residents.
Overall Rating: 17
PC WORLD NEWS
URL: http://www.pcworld.com/cgi-bin/w3com/start?pcw+main
Category: Media
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
As the "Online Personal Computing Authority," PC World News magazine has good reason to toot its own horn. Get tips on selling old computers, find out which new PC is the best buy, or read hardware reviews on scanners, motherboards, and printers. PC World News requires readers to fill out a survey so they can access even more articles. Help bring the computer world a little closer to your desktop with this valuable, online resource.
Overall Rating: 17
Supermodel Home Page
URL: http://www.supermodel.com/
Category: Media
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Even supermodels can be geek girls. Read about your favorite leggy lass on the Supermodel Home Page. SuperModels in the Rainforest is a special section meant to not only show beautiful models prancing around the trees but to teach us about the fragile ecosystem, animals and native peoples. Another section introduces visitors to one of Ford Modeling Agency's Supermodel of the Year, Monika Schnarre, with insights on her make-up tips and fashion secrets. Parts of the site is still under construction, but the elaborate quality of the home page suggests supermodels can walk down the Information Superhighway just as gracefully as a fashion show runway.
Overall Rating: 17
The MESH
URL: http://www.albany.globalone.net/theMESH/
Category: Media
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Internet news and culture blend well in The MESH. This monthly newspaper features articles, reviews, columns, listings, and news. Read editorials on the growth of the Internet, follow advice on getting the most out of your e-mail, or learn about cyberfraud and how to prevent it. Sign up for MUG News Service for a free disk full of articles, reviews, tutorials, clip art, news, and other information. MESH is a magazine "written by cyberusers for cyberusers" and will enlighten even the most arrogant of Internet know-it-alls.
Overall Rating: 17
Blender Web Popspeak Slang Dictionary
URL: http://www.blender.com/blender1.1/digest/popspeak/popspeak2.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Is her scarf too ABBA? Do you have a Barbie-Dream Boyfriend? Is the temp worker a bit more Nutrasweet than you expected? Visit the Blender Web Popspeak Slang Dictionary for a crash course in slang and hipster lingo. Each letter in the alphabet has a slang term, definition, corresponding graphic, an example of the word used in conversation and even a audio file to hear proper pronunciation. Many of the terms derive from television shows ("He's such an Urkel!"), movies, and music. Update your vocab or you could be considered to be a regular John-Boy.
Overall Rating: 17
Scuba World
URL: http://www.scubaworld.com/
Category: Sports
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
This site makes other water sports pages look like fish bait. Design and desire for knowledge (sub)merge to give divers the depth of information they deserve. Check out the directories of scuba equipment manufacturers and scuba instructors. Search for a career in diving or follow links to see the latest weather forecast. Scuba World offers descriptions for 30 diving magazines and additional links to more underwater resources.
Overall Rating: 17
USA Gymnastics Online
URL: http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/usag/
Category: Sports
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
They'll tumble for ya at USA Gymnastics Online. Find out about upcoming and past events such as the 1996 USA Gymnastics Congress and the USA Rhythmic Gymnastics Junior Olympic Championships. Search the list of biographies of famous USA gymnasts and Olympic medalists. read selected articles from the sporting magazines, Technique and USA Gymnastics. Learn about the history of artistic and rhythmic gymnastics. USA Gymnastics Online balances style and expertise perfectly.
Overall Rating: 17
Roland Users Group
URL: http://www.rolandus.com/rug/rug.html
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Roland is music to any musician's ears. Here you can find out which keyboard, synthesizer, digital sampler or electronic drum is right for your techno pop or riot grrrl band. Even if you're not in a band, the site has numerous articles and interviews with composers and musicians who use the company's equipment, including "White Squall" film composer Jeff Roma and Jazz fusionist Pat Metheny. You can also shop for Roland videos, posters, clothing, books and CDs from the Web site.
Overall Rating: 17
Web Active
URL: http://www.webactive.com/
Category: Political
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Take an activist approach to the Web with this site for the Caesar Chavez in all of us. Web Active scans the Web for politically savvy and informative sites. The editors here make a special effort to identify grassroots causes and efforts, and feature them on the site. Here you can take a Real Audio trip inside the heads of Web editors wanting to make a difference, like the infamous Guerrilla Girls or the executive director of Hands Net , Sam Karp. There's a section just for lynx-only users, and a list of activist projects you can participate in such as saving Mt. Graham or protesting the pending execution of journalist, Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Overall Rating: 17
Web Review
URL: http://gnn.com/wr/
Category: Political
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Web Review focuses in on sites that utilize the Internet as a way to disseminate information. One recent article outlines how certain reports from the Gulf War snuck onto the Web, while being ignored by the traditional media. Another columnist picks apart a Christian group's allegations of child porn available on CompuServe. Most of the articles and site reviews on Web Review are not political in nature, but are concerned with technology news. However, as Congress begins to legislate conduct on the net, look to Web Review for extensive coverage of the issues.
Overall Rating: 17
ACLU Freedom Network
URL: http://www.aclu.org/
Category: Political
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
This database from the ACLU is a dream come true for law students, activists and everyday citizens who want to know more about an issue before heading to the voting booths. You can read about the latest trials and news related to school prayer, AIDs discrimination, the death penalty, and reproductive rights. Every section has a link to press releases, Associated Press news headlines, other Web sites, and a summary of the history behind the issues. Voters can see an overview of congressional attitudes and the general tone of Congress. Students can download "Express Yourself: The First Amendment," a unique interactive software program which explores freedom of speech as it relates to students today.
Overall Rating: 17
Fisbee Freestyle
URL: http://www.users.interport.net/~rmeier/disc/disc.html
Category: Sports
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Anyone can catch a frisbee, but not everyone can spin a plastic disk with style. See photos of pros such as Bob Coleman catching a frisbee with his leg draped over his arm or witness the grace of Gena Sample's leg split as she catches a low throw. Look up the rankings of the top frisbee players in the Freestyle Players Association section or follow your favorite players in the tournament schedule. Test your disk knowledge in the Frisbee Trivia section or let the links list take you to related sites as if you were a frisbee floating across the Web.
Overall Rating: 16
Rugby World Server
URL: http://www.libertynet.org/~djrugby/brfc.html
Category: Sports
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Considered to be one of the roughest sports around, rugby has a safe and easy site to learn more about the game and its players. The Rugby World Server pays tribute to the sport with an extensive WWW directory of pages, a coach search, USARFU and MARFU news, rugby suppliers and publications, and more! Meet the Brandywine Rugby Football Club or find out how to join the Middle Atlantic Rugby Football Union. Some of the sections are still under heavy construction, so watch out for missing links and sparse content.
Overall Rating: 16
SoccerNews Online
URL: http://www.csn.net/~eid/soccer/sccrindx.html
Category: Sports
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
What's white and black and kicked all over the globe? A soccer ball! On SoccerNews Online, fans can read who's kicking the ball all the way to the CONCACAF Gold Cup or which team will wow the world at the 1996 Summer Olympics. SoccerNews Online divides the reports by associations such as FIFA, CONMEBOL, UEFA, CAF, AFC, and OFC. Go to the USA section to see which college team is ranked highest in the league or follow the links to select sites each representing youth, amateur and professional teams. SoccerNews Online has reached its goal as a valuable sports resource.
Overall Rating: 16
The Martial-Arts as Kent's Learned Them
URL: http://student-www.uchicago.edu/users/fun5/martial.html
Category: Sports
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan now have a Web site even THEY would bow down to honor. The "Martial-Arts as Kent's Learned Them" has information on Martial Arts in General/Self-Defense, Tang Soo Do, Aikido, Qigong, Jeet Kune Do, and a Martial Arts Doublespeak Guide. Read the hypertext version of the Art Of War by Sun Tzu or shop for equipment on the WWW Martial Arts Supply Catalog. Get advice on how to find a real Jeet Kune Do instructor. This is a stellar site for anyone interested in Kung Foo fighting.
Overall Rating: 16
SF MOMA
URL: http://www.sfmoma.org/
Category: Art
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Paintings of country dogs and suburban cars riddle The San Francisco Modern Art Museum Web site. Read about special exhibitions such as highlights from Mexican Modernism and Maya Deren film series, or look at slides of selections from the permanent collection (without holding them up to the light.) Study up on the history of the museum or plan your life around the calendar of exhibitions.
Overall Rating: 16
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
URL: http://www.mfa.org/
Category: Art
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Discover the mythical art of the ancients and the captivating canvases of the post moderns at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Web site. The museum's first online exhibition explores the work of nineteenth-century New England painter, Winslow Homer, best known for his painting, "Long Branch, New Jersey." After artistic enlightenment, order a free museum catalog to be sent via snail mail. The site needs more interactivity before it can rank high with the other online masterpieces.
Overall Rating: 16
Hieroglyphics Music Promotions
URL: http://www.webcom.com/~stinke/
Category: Music
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Archeologists study hieroglyphics to learn about the past, music lovers visit Hieroglyphics Music Promotion to learn about the future sounds of Hip-Hop. For a small fee, musicians can sell their demos and mix tapes on this site or download sound clips of albums before buying them. However, for a site named after important drawings, Hieroglyphics Music Promotion,s space online has limited graphics, even with the snazzy Java zipper at the beginning.
Overall Rating: 16
MUSICIAN.COM
URL: http://www.musician.com/
Category: Music
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Missing a tuba player for your punk band? MUSICIAN.COM has a free musician search for traditional and not-so-typical artists. The real attraction here is the Hollywood Rock Walk Museum online archive where visitors can see photos of B.B King,s favorite guitar "Lucille" and the famous Star Boots from leader singer of KISS, Paul Stanley. Most of the site contains advertisements selling vintage guitars and equipment. Read articles on the featured artist of the month in Cyber Folio. For additional music-related site surfing, go to the Music Link Central section.
Overall Rating: 16
Dodd's Linking Pages
URL: http://www.netdepot.com/~gargoyle/magic.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Abracadabra! Pull a great Web site out of Dodd's hat. Serving as a portal to magic on the Net, this site has links to people's pages who like getting out of straightjackets such as escape artist Mathew Cooper (see vanity site of the Month) or those who like waving a magic wand with a sick sense of humor ala Penn and Teller. This online directory has too many links up its sleeve to do it justice in a single paragraph. Jump to magic supply stores or find out how to join up with the members of the I.B.M. Ring 2100.
Overall Rating: 16
The Unknown Photographer
URL: http://home.earthlink.net/~dpuglia/
Category: Art
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Java applets and still photography combine to make an obscure gallery unknown to the average Web wanderer. Some of the photographers in the exhibit do have names, unlike its title suggests. Miko Yamaguchi and David Puglia take viewers on a special trip through a strange world of broken hotel signs, cereal boxes in the snow and balloons on sticks that should make any shy shutterbug look for similar inspiration in the commonplace.
Overall Rating: 16
Victoria Benatar Urban Home Page
URL: http://www.columbia.edu/~vb45/vb.index2.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
If you could tear down New York City and start designing it over again on your computer, what would you do differently? The Victoria Benatar Urban Home Page showcases projects from students at the graduate school of architecture, planning and preservation at Columbia University. Students present their 3-D renderings of lower Manhattan and Harlem. Some of the text is a bit too academic to give a good understanding of the project, but the pictures might remind you of movie stills from *Blade Runner.*
Overall Rating: 16
The Art Line
URL: http://grimmy.santarosa.edu/~sfaught/art.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
From neoclassical to modern, The Art Line offers short descriptions of theme through art. Special articles take a closer look at the rapidly changing scenes and the freedom artists have to experiment. Any art lover or student will appreciate the vast spectrum of art jpegs as well as a huge directory of links to museums, university art departments and artists themselves.
Overall Rating: 16
Blacksun
URL: http://www.dnai.com/~blacksun/
Category: Art
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
This Java boy-wonder of a site displays art on canvas and on skin. Blacksun shows off paintings and tattoo designs, along with an article on taking care of the more "permanent" works of body art. This site also revolves around a galaxy of Java animations: whirling squiggles, blooming flowers and dancing stick people add life to the monitor. Check out Blacksun's message board and guest book for more tattoo advice and Web design praises.
Overall Rating: 16
SF MOMA
URL: http://www.sfmoma.org/
Category: Art
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Paintings of country dogs and suburban cars riddle The San Francisco Modern Art Museum Web site. Read about special exhibitions such as highlights from Mexican Modernism and Maya Deren film series, or look at slides of selections from the permanent collection (without holding them up to the light.) Study up on the history of the museum or plan your life around the calendar of exhibitions.
Overall Rating: 16
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
URL: http://www.mfa.org/
Category: Art
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Discover the mythical art of the ancients and the captivating canvases of the post moderns at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Web site. The museum's first online exhibition explores the work of nineteenth-century New England painter, Winslow Homer, best known for his painting, "Long Branch, New Jersey." After artistic enlightenment, order a free museum catalog to be sent via snail mail. The site needs more interactivity before it can rank high with the other online masterpieces.
Overall Rating: 16
Hieroglyphics Music Promotions
URL: http://www.webcom.com/~stinke/
Category: Music
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Archeologists study hieroglyphics to learn about the past, music lovers visit Hieroglyphics Music Promotion to learn about the future sounds of Hip-Hop. For a small fee, musicians can sell their demos and mix tapes on this site or download sound clips of albums before buying them. However, for a site named after important drawings, Hieroglyphics Music Promotion,s space online has limited graphics, even with the snazzy Java zipper at the beginning.
Overall Rating: 16
MUSICIAN.COM
URL: http://www.musician.com/
Category: Music
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Missing a tuba player for your punk band? MUSICIAN.COM has a free musician search for traditional and not-so-typical artists. The real attraction here is the Hollywood Rock Walk Museum online archive where visitors can see photos of B.B King,s favorite guitar "Lucille" and the famous Star Boots from leader singer of KISS, Paul Stanley. Most of the site contains advertisements selling vintage guitars and equipment. Read articles on the featured artist of the month in Cyber Folio. For additional music-related site surfing, go to the Music Link Central section.
Overall Rating: 16
Dodd's Linking Pages
URL: http://www.netdepot.com/~gargoyle/magic.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Abracadabra! Pull a great Web site out of Dodd's hat. Serving as a portal to magic on the Net, this site has links to people's pages who like getting out of straightjackets such as escape artist Mathew Cooper (see vanity site of the Month) or those who like waving a magic wand with a sick sense of humor ala Penn and Teller. This online directory has too many links up its sleeve to do it justice in a single paragraph. Jump to magic supply stores or find out how to join up with the members of the I.B.M. Ring 2100.
Overall Rating: 16
Paris Pages: Paris Art
URL: http://www.paris.org/ParisArt/
Category: Art
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
When planning to create a site about Paris, one would inevitably expect to make art one of the main sections. After all, Paris isn't just about snooty waiters and croissants. In the Paris Art section of the Paris Pages, afficionados and collectors can search through lists of links for galleries, artists, or images. Some of the major contemporary artists residing on the site include Jean-Louis Guitard, Kara, Roger Karoubi, and Peter Klasen. An added plus: Paris Art provides prices and gallery locations for each piece featured. Viva la Web!
Overall Rating: 16
DIA Center for the Arts
URL: http://www.diacenter.org/
Category: Art
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
If artists painted not from the soul but from the results of a market research survey, they would find a happy home at the DIA Center for the Arts in New York. DIA features experimental art, such as an online exhibit called, "The Most Wanted Paintings on the Web." These paintings reflect the artists' interpretations of a professional market research survey about style and taste; in turn, the site was created to please the greatest number of people. Visitors who fill out the online survey help determine future art and exhibits, making the site interactive and constantly evolving.
Overall Rating: 16
Welcome to the Whitney Museum of American Art
URL: http://www.echonyc.com/~whitney/
Category: Art
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
The Whitney Museum of American Art understands America's quest for its own artistic identity and celebrates new, talented artists on its Web site. Whitney features beautiful paintings of railroad sunsets and morose roses. Learn why the Beat Generation influenced American art and culture in the 1960s. Walk on the wild side in the "Altered and Irrational" section (zebra skin and Day-Glo?). Or witness oddities created from rubberized hair, mirror glass, and wood. The Whitney Museum represents some of the best, most obscure art in America with an equally exceptional Web site.
Overall Rating: 16
The Castles of Wales
URL: http://www.wp.com/castlewales/home.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
If a man's home is his castle, then what is his home page? The Castles of Wales site presents visitors with more than just a few photos of royal casas. Learn the difference between the Norman and Edward castles. View short sketches on Wales' principal castle builders, and read an examination of what motivated their creations. Test your knowledge with the Welsh Castle Quiz, and discover why Chepstow Castle in southeast Wales is one of the best castles to visit. This site offers plenty of information on the history behind these majestic land marks. The Castles of Wales is a Web site fit for a king.
Overall Rating: 16
Scultura
URL: http://www.scultura.com/
Category: Art
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Leave it up to a bunch of artists to try to form a renaissance on the Web. Scultura Arts Forum is creating a global network for artists to meet each other and transform the Web into a valuable tool for creativity. Read the classified ads or browse around in the many different galleries. Every medium, from wood sculptures to oil on a paper bag, is on the Scultura site. While some artists focus on brilliant, hand-painted silk paintings, others try to find physical expression of their souls through dance. This site attempts to represent all artists, whether they hold a paint brush or step into toe shoes.
Overall Rating: 16
Mark Harden's texas.net
URL: http://www.texas.net/~mharden/index.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
On Mark's texas.net Museum of Art home page, a visitor can travel to an FTP site to download pictures of great art or follow links to other museums. Look at the Impressionists from your computer monitor... does this mean you have to step back from your screen to fully appreciate the image? Or, Mark lets you read about the best art CD-ROM titles on the market. The initial cover page of the site is riddled with graphics, making navigation a bit turbulent, but at this site, even Mona Lisa would smile.
Overall Rating: 16
The East Village
URL: http://www.theeastvillage.com/
Category: Media
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
The East Village is to New York City as Tales of the City is to San Francisco. This site is a diary of a party kid, Eve, who is destined to take a bite out of the Big Apple. Meet her friends and lovers as she explains her life from a bar stool. On the design front, The East Village accents text about bad weddings and bitter relationships with magnificent photos of New York at night. The site has a while to go before it makes much sense to the average online wanderer, but this is one apple Eve doesn't mind pushing on to another Internet Adam.
Overall Rating: 16
A Basic ASL Aid
URL: http://home.earthlink.net/~masterstek/ASLDict.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Speaking without words is just what the Basic American Sign Language site hopes to teach people on the Web. Learn basic hand gestures for words such as Alaska, green, and toilet. The site also shows all the signs for the alphabet and numbers up to 10. Even though A Basic ASL Aid site is an excellent resource, it IS basic in design. Glitches in the site will take visitors to the bottom of the page when all they wanted was to look up the sign for ambulance. Perhaps mastering the sign for the word annoying would be more useful here.
Overall Rating: 16
Fisbee Freestyle
URL: http://www.users.interport.net/~rmeier/disc/disc.html
Category: Sports
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Anyone can catch a frisbee, but not everyone can spin a plastic disk with style. See photos of pros such as Bob Coleman catching a frisbee with his leg draped over his arm or witness the grace of Gena Sample's leg split as she catches a low throw. Look up the rankings of the top frisbee players in the Freestyle Players Association section or follow your favorite players in the tournament schedule. Test your disk knowledge in the Frisbee Trivia section or let the links list take you to related sites as if you were a frisbee floating across the Web.
Overall Rating: 16
Rugby World Server
URL: http://www.libertynet.org/~djrugby/brfc.html
Category: Sports
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Considered to be one of the roughest sports around, rugby has a safe and easy site to learn more about the game and its players. The Rugby World Server pays tribute to the sport with an extensive WWW directory of pages, a coach search, USARFU and MARFU news, rugby suppliers and publications, and more! Meet the Brandywine Rugby Football Club or find out how to join the Middle Atlantic Rugby Football Union. Some of the sections are still under heavy construction, so watch out for missing links and sparse content.
Overall Rating: 16
SoccerNews Online
URL: http://www.csn.net/~eid/soccer/sccrindx.html
Category: Sports
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
What's white and black and kicked all over the globe? A soccer ball! On SoccerNews Online, fans can read who's kicking the ball all the way to the CONCACAF Gold Cup or which team will wow the world at the 1996 Summer Olympics. SoccerNews Online divides the reports by associations such as FIFA, CONMEBOL, UEFA, CAF, AFC, and OFC. Go to the USA section to see which college team is ranked highest in the league or follow the links to select sites each representing youth, amateur and professional teams. SoccerNews Online has reached its goal as a valuable sports resource.
Overall Rating: 16
The Martial-Arts as Kent's Learned Them
URL: http://student-www.uchicago.edu/users/fun5/martial.html
Category: Sports
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan now have a Web site even THEY would bow down to honor. The "Martial-Arts as Kent's Learned Them" has information on Martial Arts in General/Self-Defense, Tang Soo Do, Aikido, Qigong, Jeet Kune Do, and a Martial Arts Doublespeak Guide. Read the hypertext version of the Art Of War by Sun Tzu or shop for equipment on the WWW Martial Arts Supply Catalog. Get advice on how to find a real Jeet Kune Do instructor. This is a stellar site for anyone interested in Kung Foo fighting.
Overall Rating: 16
Skate.Net
URL: http://www.crocker.com/~webtrax/skate/
Category: Sports
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Before you can master a major half pipe, you need a kickin' skateboard. Skate.Net helps find you one by reviewing skateboard decks, trucks and wheels by Alien Workshop, Planet Earth, Venture, Toy Machine and others. Go to the clothing section for reviews on products from Airwalk, DC, Etnies and Vans. Most of the reviews have photos of the stuff so you know why it's dissed or desired. Read interviews with pro skaters Jeff Taylor, Felix Arguelles, and Richard Angelides. Look at photos galore from the Warped Tour.
Overall Rating: 16
The Perot Periodical
URL: http://www.brainlink.com/~nota/
Category: Political
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
The rich business man gone political candidate is not without representation on the Web. The Perot Periodical, an independent quarterly, tracks Perot, his United We Stand America movement, and other independents in politics. Read why Perot has such a following in an age where people choose to trust millionaires over politicians. This journal does its best to look at the truth behind Perot's hyped political campaign and analyze why so many voters were interested in his "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" approach to leadership. Other articles explore why Perot's image haunts the 1996 elections and how Libertarians think Perot uses the fourth party as a "Rich Man's Plaything."
Overall Rating: 16
Telephone Directories On The Web
URL: http://homepages.enterprise.net/rh/tel/
Category: Reference
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Reach out and touch someone online. Telephone Directories On The Web is a bookmark list of links to online telephone, fax and business directories from around the world. Every link from the Australia Yellow Pages to UK phone information is on this site. Look up a lost friend in Slovenia or call a pizza delivery place in Italy. Not much on the graphics side, the site can be a bit boring to visit unless you happen to be a fanatical phone phreak.
Overall Rating: 15
BABEL A Glossary of Computer Related Abbreviations and Acronyms
URL: http://www.access.digex.net/~ikind/babel96a.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Impress friends and family by babbling with BABEL. This site is a glossary of computer-oriented abbreviations and acronyms that comes in handy when arguing with other geeky kids. Someone who has an ACE up his sleeve is either playing cards or has a big enough shirt to store an Advanced Computing Environment. Having a BLAST doesn't mean someone's having fun but instead receiving a Blocked Asynchronous Transmission. Print out the list and make an acronym trivia game for your next party.
Overall Rating: 15
CyberDojo
URL: http://www.ryu.com/CyberDojo/
Category: Sports
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
The CyberDojo site represents a group of karateka interested in discussing Traditional Japanese or Okinawan Karate. The site features plenty of karate information including a FAQ, the CyberDojo mailing list, directory sorted by styles, a Karate terminology list, traditional Karate Kata list, a schedule of Karate-related events, Karate bibliography and suggested readings, and cute little Karate guy icons. Learn there's more to Karate than chopping wood with your feet!
Overall Rating: 15
TMIWeb Big Free Area
URL: http://www.tmiweb.com/Bigfree/Xofree/xofree.html
Category: Media
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
XO's mission is "to rewire real men for vitality, joy and creative success in the context of today's capitalist urban society." Huh? If you don't understand this site, you won,t be alone. The bias slant of XO makes Rush Limbaugh look liberal. Take a ten-minute quiz to see if you have what it takes to strike it rich on your own. Discover the "truth" why feminist overkill is driving single men out of the traditional dating scene. Most of the photos just happen to be scantily-clad women looking to have relationships with REAL men.
Overall Rating: 15
Great American Country Home Page
URL: http://www.countrystars.com/
Category: Music
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
The Great American County Home Page has more information on country musicians than you can shake a fiddle at. Dedicated to bringing fans closer to their favorite country stars, the site is sponsored by the 24-hour country music video network G.A.C Great American Country. Get the latest dirt on Garth Brooks from Katy Bee's Nashville Newsline. Read the history behind every hit maker band from Alabama to Trisha Yearwood. However, the site needs audio and video to really deserve the Patsy Cline seal of approval.
Overall Rating: 15
1996 Olympic Games
URL: http://pathfinder.com/si/athens/olyhome.html
Category: Sports
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Sports Illustrated makes a grab for the torch. Sports fans can read the schedule of events, Olympic news and almanac, sport-by-sport breakdown, and an Olympic timeline. Unfortunately, though, half of the site, including information on Sports Illustrated coverage of the events, is still under construction. If Sports Illustrated took the same time and effort on this Web site as it does on the print version, the site would earn a gold medal. However, the SI 1996 Olympics Games doesn't even earn a consolation prize.
Overall Rating: 15
Olympic Sailing
URL: http://www.process.com/launch/olysail.htm
Category: Sports
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
The Olympic Sailing site is sinking, but no one has jumped ship. Even with basic information on Olympic sailing classes, competition schedules, and a listing of the different boats and their crews, the site falls short of sailing that extra mile. Olympic Sailing only has one photo and lacks any other design forethought. Throw the Web master a life jacket and move on.
Overall Rating: 15
Portland Marathon
URL: http://www.teleport.com/~pdxmar/
Category: Sports
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Lace up your running shoes and sprint over to the Portland Marathon Home Page for the latest news and information on the September 29, 1996 running and walking marathon. Print out an entry form directly from the Web site or browse through the historical photos of races from the past. Read why so many Portland residents get up early in the morning to run in a big crowd across town.
Overall Rating: 15
Willa's Journal
URL: http://darknet.com:80/wcline/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Don't expect stories of hatred, sex, and scandal from Willa's Journal. Willa writes about birds, magical candles, and rain. Journals are a dime a disease on the Web and this one stands alone as being the warm and fuzzy one. Not only does Willa write about her daily thoughts on books, poems, and ways to be good to herself, she also keeps an online dream journal. Check out Willa's site when it's raining out and all you feel like doing is sipping coffee and petting a cat.
Overall Rating: 15
Andrew Shachat
URL: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/artbaby/
Category: Art
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Not every artist can say he's illustrated for the New York Times, Village Voice, Seventeen and a children's book called "Stop That Pickle." Andrew Shachat's online portfolio captures dogs playing guitar, a devil munching on lollipops and cats selling cleaning fluid. Hang out with hipsters in his online art opening or try to decipher the humor behind his link to the Doctor Correlius Chimp's Hospital of Digital Genetics.
Overall Rating: 15
TMIWeb Big Free Area
URL: http://www.tmiweb.com/Bigfree/Xofree/xofree.html
Category: Media
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
XO's mission is "to rewire real men for vitality, joy and creative success in the context of today's capitalist urban society." Huh? If you don't understand this site, you won,t be alone. The bias slant of XO makes Rush Limbaugh look liberal. Take a ten-minute quiz to see if you have what it takes to strike it rich on your own. Discover the "truth" why feminist overkill is driving single men out of the traditional dating scene. Most of the photos just happen to be scantily-clad women looking to have relationships with REAL men.
Overall Rating: 15
Great American Country Home Page
URL: http://www.countrystars.com/
Category: Music
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
The Great American County Home Page has more information on country musicians than you can shake a fiddle at. Dedicated to bringing fans closer to their favorite country stars, the site is sponsored by the 24-hour country music video network G.A.C Great American Country. Get the latest dirt on Garth Brooks from Katy Bee's Nashville Newsline. Read the history behind every hit maker band from Alabama to Trisha Yearwood. However, the site needs audio and video to really deserve the Patsy Cline seal of approval.
Overall Rating: 15
1996 Olympic Games
URL: http://pathfinder.com/si/athens/olyhome.html
Category: Sports
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Sports Illustrated makes a grab for the torch. Sports fans can read the schedule of events, Olympic news and almanac, sport-by-sport breakdown, and an Olympic timeline. Unfortunately, though, half of the site, including information on Sports Illustrated coverage of the events, is still under construction. If Sports Illustrated took the same time and effort on this Web site as it does on the print version, the site would earn a gold medal. However, the SI 1996 Olympics Games doesn't even earn a consolation prize.
Overall Rating: 15
Olympic Sailing
URL: http://www.process.com/launch/olysail.htm
Category: Sports
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
The Olympic Sailing site is sinking, but no one has jumped ship. Even with basic information on Olympic sailing classes, competition schedules, and a listing of the different boats and their crews, the site falls short of sailing that extra mile. Olympic Sailing only has one photo and lacks any other design forethought. Throw the Web master a life jacket and move on.
Overall Rating: 15
Portland Marathon
URL: http://www.teleport.com/~pdxmar/
Category: Sports
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Lace up your running shoes and sprint over to the Portland Marathon Home Page for the latest news and information on the September 29, 1996 running and walking marathon. Print out an entry form directly from the Web site or browse through the historical photos of races from the past. Read why so many Portland residents get up early in the morning to run in a big crowd across town.
Overall Rating: 15
Willa's Journal
URL: http://darknet.com:80/wcline/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Don't expect stories of hatred, sex, and scandal from Willa's Journal. Willa writes about birds, magical candles, and rain. Journals are a dime a disease on the Web and this one stands alone as being the warm and fuzzy one. Not only does Willa write about her daily thoughts on books, poems, and ways to be good to herself, she also keeps an online dream journal. Check out Willa's site when it's raining out and all you feel like doing is sipping coffee and petting a cat.
Overall Rating: 15
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
URL: http://www.lacma.org/
Category: Art
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
It's easy to discover the hidden secrets and lore behind the mystical artifacts of ancient Egypt when you take an online tour of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Gaze into the eyes of a sculpture from the reign of Queen Hatshepsut. Behold the grandeur of an elaborate coffin lid from a twenty-sixth dynasty official. On the bizarre side: The LACMA site features artist Annette Messager, famous for her exhibit of dead birds wearing knitted sweaters. Prepare to learn and expand your mind at LACMA, whether you plan to see a dead human surrounded in artifacts or a dead bird surrounded in cable knit.
Overall Rating: 15
fineArt forum online
URL: http://www.msstate.edu/Fineart_Online/home.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
The mission of fineArt forum online is to provide useful information on art and technology to anyone who wants it, free of charge. This arts and technology news site pushes the boundaries between art and the Internet within a zine featuring multimedia reviews, computer art, and a calendar of events. The Directory of Online Art Resources is a crucial part of the site for students, since it creates a space to study all facets of art. The Gallery is home to some of the best in painting, sculpture, and photographs online, with no admission fee. Some of the best fine art really can be seen for free.
Overall Rating: 15
Telephone Directories On The Web
URL: http://homepages.enterprise.net/rh/tel/
Category: Reference
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Reach out and touch someone online. Telephone Directories On The Web is a bookmark list of links to online telephone, fax and business directories from around the world. Every link from the Australia Yellow Pages to UK phone information is on this site. Look up a lost friend in Slovenia or call a pizza delivery place in Italy. Not much on the graphics side, the site can be a bit boring to visit unless you happen to be a fanatical phone phreak.
Overall Rating: 15
CyberDojo
URL: http://www.ryu.com/CyberDojo/
Category: Sports
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
The CyberDojo site represents a group of karateka interested in discussing Traditional Japanese or Okinawan Karate. The site features plenty of karate information including a FAQ, the CyberDojo mailing list, directory sorted by styles, a Karate terminology list, traditional Karate Kata list, a schedule of Karate-related events, Karate bibliography and suggested readings, and cute little Karate guy icons. Learn there's more to Karate than chopping wood with your feet!
Overall Rating: 15
Running Room
URL: http://www.runningroom.com/
Category: Sports
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Run, Forrest, Run! Running Room is a store that sells running shoes and clothes, but online it acts more like a sporting resource. Look up races in Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, London and other regions. Access information on national races such as The Boston Marathon and the Olympic Day Run. Check out the clinic programs for workshops, sponsored by the store, on learning how to run without getting an injury, running faster and a special women-only program. Unfortunately, the site needs more informative articles and a personality before it's worth running to.
Overall Rating: 15
King of the Mountain Cycling Road Climbs
URL: http://funnelweb.utcc.utk.edu/~wlculp/king.html
Category: Sports
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Remember playing King of the Mountain where kids raced up a hill and whoever could push as many kids off while staying on top won? Add bikes and make that hill into a mountain and you've got this sport. Search for a difficult mountain bike climbing route in Tennessee or look up Mt. Evans in Colorado, the highest paved road climb in North America. Each of the mountain bike climbs has ratings, locations, ride and race information; however, there are more "working on it" gifs than actual goods.
Overall Rating: 15
Weightlifting
URL: http://www.waf.com/weights/index.html
Category: Sports
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Step up to the platform and lift a ton of techniques for weightlifting. Read the rules for various styles including the snatch, the clean and jerk and more. Follow the hefty hypertext links to sites about Master Lifters, nutrition and training locations. Use the Weight Lifters Calculator to estimate lifting formulas or to balance your checkbook. The Coach's Office section has articles and tips by actual weight trainers about coaching, competition, grips and basic training routines.
Overall Rating: 15
SWIMnews Online
URL: http://www.swimnews.com/
Category: Sports
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Sites either sink or swim on the Web, but this one manages to stay afloat. SWIMnews Online features news and swimmer profiles in its magazine. Look up rankings and records as well as meet results of your favorite human fish. Search the photo gallery for specific professional swimmers or sports photographers. This Canadian swim site has a purpose even if it does lack a personality.
Overall Rating: 15
Internet Squash Federation
URL: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/~npb/
Category: Sports
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
While some of us would rather eat it, others have reclaimed the word and made it into a sport. The Internet Squash Federation has all the links a squasher could want on clubs, training, companies, history, newsgroups, newsletters, player profiles, rules, tournaments, TV coverage and much more. Confusion rules the humor section while the spending urge marks the mail order page. Who knows if Squash will be the next big sport of the future, but with a site like this, it's off to a good start.
Overall Rating: 15
Prudential Insurance
URL: http://www.prudential.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Come to terms with your own mortality yet? Prudential has a Web site to remind you of the grave in the days of your youth. Learn which policy is best for you when the Grim Reaper comes knocking on your door. Find the closest Prudential Representative in your area with the Geo-Locator or discover the possible career options as a life insurance salesman. Take a tour of the fictitious Ourtown, USA where the Prudential employees help build housing for the poor. And remember, your time is short.
Overall Rating: 15
Sinn Fein
URL: http://www.serve.com/rm/sinnfein/index.html
Category: Political
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Most of us get little exposure to the Northern Ireland conflict outside a few reports of car bombing incidents. Sinn Fein is the one of oldest political parties in Ireland and, now with a Web presence, hopes to enlighten the outside world as to the history behind the conflict and the current state of Irish politics. You can read about the Irish revolution, here, or for a recent update of political events, have a look at the weekly Republican newspaper, An Phoblacht/Republican News. In the Election Headquarters, visitors can vote in polls on various issues.
Overall Rating: 15
The Brookings Institute
URL: http://www.brook.edu/
Category: Political
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
The nation's oldest think tank, the Brookings Institute, functions as an independent governmental analyst and critic. Political pundits can read recent work by Brookings scholars on current topics such as capitalism in Peru, educational standards in America, and the future of the nation's capital. Other articles and documents at The Brookings Institute site showcase alternative solutions to country's problems. Visitors to the site can also read research report summaries from scholars interested in various aspects of social reform.
Overall Rating: 15
Barbara Safran Studios
URL: http://www.csi.nb.ca/safran/
Category: Art
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Horses, flowers and clouds are the muses behind Barbara Safran's paintings. The site has a handful of artwork and one interview with the painter. Beginning painters will find the Artist Corner to be the most interesting and helpful section, with advice on the horizon line, perspective, still life, painting on location, and working from photographs. The Studio should put more work online, though, to really be worth its bandwidth.
Overall Rating: 14
Intersolv
URL: http://www.intersolv.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
What Nutrasweet does for coffee, Intersolv aims to do for Java. The world's 35th largest software company, Intersolv's Web site has a nice design, but ironically enough, no Java bells and whistles -- not even a single GIF animation. For a company that prides itself on working with JavaSoft, it's a mystery why the site doesn't show off some snazzier elements.
Overall Rating: 14
Drudge Report
URL: http://www.lainet.com/~drudge/
Category: Political
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Updated about every two days, the Drudge Report delivers basic news coverage from the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune and others, while also offering information from primary sources on anything from recent earthquake readings in San Francisco to overnight ratings for NBC. The Drudge Report digs deep inside the mass of media choices and returns with popular columns such as Daily Variety's Army Archerd, Washington Post's Paul Gigot, and Chicago Tribune's Jim Warren. The Drudge Report also supplies off-the-hall tidbits, such as statistics on how many twentysomethings actually watch the evening news and articles as to why tongue piercing is popular in Los Angeles.
Overall Rating: 14
JZ Presents Art of Joan
URL: http://www.inch.com/~jeffz/joan_art.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Joan Stennick, like Alice in Wonderland, must have met many smiling cats in her dreams. The JZ Presents Art of Joan site wants to make sure the net isn't void of grinning kitties. But the site doesn't offer a particularly extensive showing of Joan's art, and since it's located on Joan's boyfriend's home page, it comes across more like a poorly thought-out promotion. Perhaps if JZ let Joan do her own explaining and offered a bit more than three large paintings, we might care more about images of smirking felines.
Overall Rating: 13
Archery
URL: http://www.stud.his.no/~morten-b/archery.html
Category: Sports
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
If it's good enough for Robin Hood, it's good enough to have a Web page. Archery has become a modern sport with the latest in high-tech bows and custom-made arrows, but it's been around since prehistory. This site might as well have been designed back then too. The only saving grace of this page is the content , including a brief history of archery and a detailed section on equipment. Otherwise, it should put an apple on its head and hope for a miss.
Overall Rating: 13
National Review
URL: http://www.townhall.com/nationalreview/
Category: Political
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
William F. Buckley has a home online and it's the Web edition of National Review. Fans of the conservative political magazine can read a small sampling of sections such as Dear Rusty and Crossroads from the latest newsstand issue. The site also offers daily updates and original commentary on issues surrounding the Clinton scandal, the 1996 elections, and income tax relief. Even with the famous columnists and well-written commentary, the site designers should take a look at Townhall, the site the magazine is hosted by for some notion of how stylish a Web magazine can be and see that conservativism does not have to be ugly.
Overall Rating: 13
CENTRIPEDUS CENTER SEEKING ART
URL: http://www.centripedus.com/
Category: Art
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Artists aren't highly known for their ability to act coherently, and the Centripedus Center Seeking Art Web site won't shatter this notion. On the surface, the site appears to be an avant-garde commercial page, but the more you sink into the center, the more you'll realize you're inside a chaotic mess of political and philosophical diatribes about Christianity and capitalism. The site proudly promotes online art revolutions and various Web projects, including the promotional art for the movie *The Net *.
Overall Rating: 12
Zupergraphyx
URL: http://www.ping.be/Zupergraphyx!/
Category: Art
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Pigs produce bacon, pork, and really cool Web sites. On Zupergraphyx, each part of a patchwork pig will take you on an interesting journey inside the mind of a Web designer. The quality of the graphics alone will make any pig's tail curl. Rub the pig's lower back and it'll take you through the step-by-step process of making a Web page for a finicky client. Poke the pig's rear and you'll get information on a text editor called Futplex. Lots of useful information just from dissecting a cyber piggy.
Overall Rating: 12
THE UTNE LENS Issue # 10
URL: http://www.utne.com/
Category: Publications
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Broken down into community, society, art, travel, culture, media, technology, mind, body, and spirit sections, the Utne Lens focuses on what a real Web magazine should embody. As the companion Web site to the magazine *Utne Reader*, the Utne Lens needs no introduction as a place for articles and opinions that mainstream media tends to ignore. However, Utne Lens also offers a fun grassroots section, where readers can create their own mini-home pages or chat in the cafe with other readers.
Overall Rating: 12
Outside Magazine
URL: http://outside.starwave.com/outside/online/magazine/omindex.html
Category: Publications
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Sitting behind a computer all day leaves most of us with an itch to ditch work and go outside. Thanks to *Outside Magazine*'s online site, you almost feel the dirt beneath your feet. Read articles on skiing, hiking, celebrity athletes, national parks, wilderness therapy, and more. *Outside Magazine* also displays some breathtaking photography and amusing illustrations. After exploring the Web, the magazine encourages its readers to explore the best interactive site of all -- outside.
Overall Rating: 12
Multiworld
URL: http://www.jnw.com/mw/index.html
Category: Publications
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
If it's a small world after all, the Web only shrinks it further. Multiworld sends this same message to its readers. As a bimonthly multilingual publication relating to such topics as nature, wildlife, culture, people, traveling, and art , Multiworld offers articles in languages other than just English. Read a New York diary in Chinese or an account of an academic experience in Taiwan. The photo snapshots and arty graphics only add to the quality of this site.
Overall Rating: 12
The Almost Complete HTML Reference
URL: http://www.well.com/user/millenn3/
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
No site offering advice on HTML design compares to the extensive resource directory from "The Almost Complete HTML Reference Guide." Find books on HTML design, information on more than 22 Web browsers, links for more than 30 HTML converter sites, tips on color backgrounds and transparent GIFs, and even step-by-step guides for creating forms and tables. Anyone just beginning to create a pit stop on the Web should check out this guide before construction.
Overall Rating: 12
Idea Exchange
URL: http://warren-idea-exchange.com/
Category: Art
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
The Idea Exchange makes corporate art look cool. The site, sponsored by the Warren paper company, goes the extra mile by providing links to illustrators, finishers, photographers, pre-press houses, printers, professional associations, and more. In the Printer's Forum, desktop publishers can access information on flexography, thermal transfer, paper stock, sheet-fed offset, and other high-tech publishing issues. Fanzine editors and glossy magazine publishers alike will agree this is one of the brightest ideas on the Web.
Overall Rating: 12
Asian Arts
URL: http://www.webart.com/asianart/index.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Before Monet and Picasso picked up paint brushes, art existed as a sacred form of expression. In the Asian Arts site, visitors learn how sculpture played a central religious role in Indian civilization. Much of the Asian art pays tribute to ancient deities such as the Vajrayana statue, which represents the five cosmic elements dominating the world: form, sensation, name, adaptation and consciousness. After gazing at the imagery, peruse extensive articles on the Giant Thangkas of Tsurphu Monastery, the Tsa-Tsa Votive Tablets of Tibet, a Taglung Lama, and more.
Overall Rating: 12
The Bocce Site
URL: http://www.ultranet.com/~jfrat/bocce.htm
Category: Sports
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Bocce isn't just about rolling some balls on the ground, it's about an entire culture. Read the rules to the "bowling" game or go a step further and try reading a book about the European game. This very small directory has links to tournament news and league standings as well as the computer game, Virtual Bocce. Without much original content, The Bocce Site still loses site of its target.
Overall Rating: 12
Net-User
URL: http://netuser.pair.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Nothing washes down cheap, frozen pizza like a 1992 Cabernet Sauvignon-Zinfandel ordered online. Net-User sells everything from alcohol to detective agency services. One company advertising on Net-User even offers one-on-one phone counseling for people with Attention Deficit Disorder. That service goes for $150 an hour, provided the patient can stay on the line that long. Somehow Net-User doesn't seem too legit, and the design falls short of inspiring confidence.
Overall Rating: 12
911 Gallery Home Page
URL: http://www.iquest.net/911/iq_911.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
In case of an artistic emergency, go directly to the 911 Gallery Home Page. The 911 Gallery specializes in digital art: computer graphics, video, and electronic music. Delight your eyeballs staring into portraits of cyber condors and fractal fish. Play with the interactive paintings hanging on the walls of 3-D rooms. Witness an artist's search for her identity within scratchy portraits of home life in Palestine. Dialing the 911 Gallery will save you from the horrors of visual boredom.
Overall Rating: 11
The Chagall Windows
URL: http://www1.huji.ac.il/md/chagall/chagall.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Even with all the hype that accompanied Windows 95, some windows still exist that represent an entity more powerful even than Bill Gates. The Chagall Windows site celebrates Mark Chagall's stained glass portraits of the 12 sons of the Biblical patriarch Jacob. The site has biographical information on Chagall, who created the windows to honor his Jewish parents, and pictures of the actual windows illustrated with animals, fish, flowers, and Jewish symbols. This site underscores how the Web can be used as an artistic tribute.
Overall Rating: 11
Kudzu a digital quarterly
URL: http://www.etext.org/Zines/Kudzu/
Category: Publications
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Kudos to Kudzu, a quarterly journal dedicated to saturating the Web with the best in underground poetry and fiction. By making it available in Adobe Acrobat PDF format or standard ASCII text, the founders of this literary magazine want to make sure no one is left out of reading the latest issue. Kudzu features unusual perspectives, including a tale of murder at a magazine kiosk, an ode to dead grass, and a short story about an annual beach house retreat shared by friends.
Overall Rating: 11
InterText The Online Fiction Magazine
URL: http://www.etext.org/Zines/InterText/
Category: Publications
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
InterText is more memorable for the magnificent cover art than the actual stories. The illustration of a swirling blue sky behind a little boy begins the journey of entertaining stories within the online fiction magazine. With titles to stories such as "Barefoot Sinderella" and "Storm's Child," InterText creeps inside the reader's imagination and never climbs out. Other stories go into the minds of hackers, fishermen, and dead Russian leaders.
Overall Rating: 11
WebZine Weekly
URL: http://www.peli.com/
Category: Publications
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
By 8 a.m. every Monday morning, WebZine Weekly is delivered to the Web without an annoying loud smack against the garage door from a vindictive newspaper boy. This general-interest publication includes articles on anti-Rush Limbaugh viewpoints, conspiracy updates, leisure sports, computer law reports, parenting advice and more. WebZine's look -- another Netscape-enhanced design complete with tables -- mimics some of its more commercial competitors, but has a gonzo journalist attitude all its own.
Overall Rating: 11
THE PM ZONE
URL: http://popularmechanics.com/
Category: Publications
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
GIFs of rivets and sheet metal decorate the *Popular Mechanics* magazine online site, The PM Zone. With more than 1,000 pages of text, The PM Zone wins hands down for its quest in informing the Web public on do-it-yourself home projects, computing, new technology, and, of course, auto maintenance. Watch clips of *Popular Mechanics* movies, or talk shop in the HomeArts On-line Network. Travel in the PM Zone Time Machine to see the progression of technology spanning from 1900 to 1960.
Overall Rating: 11
The Old Farmer's Almanac
URL: http://www.xensei.com/ofa/
Category: Publications
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
The next time you mutter to yourself about forgetting an umbrella while walking home in the pouring rain, remember to visit an old farmer on the Web. The Old Farmer's Almanac is online and ready to help readers outwit the weather. Get a five-day forecast from a link to New Jersey Online, or read about the history behind the successful almanac, published since 1792. The site would only improve with more articles from the actual publication, but the sun graphic peaking out from the corner of the page reminds us that Mother Nature could be a lot less accommodating.
Overall Rating: 11
VRML
URL: http://www.newtype.com/NewType/vr/index.htm
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Virtually everyone wants to learn more about the Virtual Reality Modeling Language, or VRML. Thanks to this graphically savvy Web site, VRML promises to be the next cool thing on the Net. Read about VRML browsers, industry news, projects, outside sites, specific hardware, and software. Build a VRML world of your very own with help from downloadable software and various Internet tools. The VRML Web site design is classy, polished, and eager to amaze visitors. Even short attention span surfers will appreciate the sections on VRML art and arcade games.
Overall Rating: 11
Neil Harrison Website
URL: http://www.nol.net/~nil/dali.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Neil Harrison Website is home to the Dali Virtual Museum of Art and satisfies the surrealist cravings of art-starved net surfers. Using an interactive map, visitors can wander through various rooms, including the Great Hall, which displays the famous paintings "Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory" and "The Christ of St. John of the Cross." Biographical information on this obscure artist seems to be unimportant to the virtual museum curators, but the plethora of Dali photographs and paintings will satiate any hungry minds running through these halls of art.
Overall Rating: 10
WEBSTOCK
URL: http://ching.com/
Category: Art
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
First there was Woodstock, then Wigstock, now Webstock. As a virtual art colony in Cyberia, Webstock promotes alternative art, music, and philosophy. Discover "the sound sculptures" or lap drums of composer Ken Lovelett . Ponder the significance of artist Justin Love's portraits of two black cats eating watermelon. Or read about brain simulators, astrology, Lake Klamath Blue Green Algae, and WomanStock. Webstock would make any Zippy proud to hold up the peace sign in cyberspace.
Overall Rating: 10
Electronic Newsstand Homepage
URL: http://www.enews.com/
Category: Publications
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Instead of walking down to the corner bookstore for the latest business journal or newspaper, consumers can find free articles from popular magazines at the Electronic Newsstand. The Newsstand lists publications covering entertainment, technology, business, automotive, health, recreation, and politics. Read the latest South African news in *Weekly Mail & Guardian*, or discover the best method to catch trout in *Field & Stream.* The entertainment section lacks the wide variety of links the business and computer sections boast. And don't try to find an underground zine such as *bOING bOING* or *ZUG* here -- this newsstand is for mainstream titles.
Overall Rating: 10
Imagination
URL: http://www.busim.ee.boun.edu.tr/imagination/
Category: Publications
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Imagine a literary journal with odd graphics, unique story plots, and experimental poetry. Imagination takes readers into a cerebral journey of SciFaiku (science fiction haiku), virtual reality columns, and an art gallery consisting of blue blobs. Unlike other online publications, Imagination isn't concerned about cashing in on subscriptions or wooing advertisers. It proudly stands alone as an exceptional literary journal barely escaping the clutches of commercialism.
Overall Rating: 10
Experience Power Design
URL: http://www.libertynet.org:80/~power/
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Experience eye-popping graphics -- literally -- on the Power Design Web site. This design company creates Web sites for TV stations, national magazines, and even a football club. Learn how to redesign a national magazine in two weeks. Read notes from a seminar on the importance of unique Web site design. Buy a shirt that says, "Power means never having to kiss ass." Power Design is one interesting company striving to make the Web more wacky and witty. Any company that uses tweaked pictures of dentures on a cereal box can't be boring.
Overall Rating: 10
7 AVENUE
URL: http://BYTESIZEMAG.COM/7AVENUE/7AVENUE.HTM
Category: Media
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Fashion victims now have a Web site full of advice. Take a stroll down 7th Avenue for tips on winter fashion, stylish eyebrows, and even the comeback of the ponytail. The content isn't extensive, but it is informative for anyone wanting to know why camel coats have invaded the runways. Download photos of models strutting their stuff or follow links to advertisements from Armani, Hermes, and even the Gap. The 7 Avenue site needs more articles and features to keep fashion fans and phobes interested in staying longer than just a few minutes.
Overall Rating: 10
The Morpo Review Cover Page
URL: http://morpo.novia.net/morpo/
Category: Publications
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
The Morpo Review morphs stereotypical views of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction into a bizarre escape from the traditional world of literary magazines. With poems are soaked in dysfunctional family angst and a twist of subway passenger diversity, Morpo delivers readers an unique blend of writing styles. The site goes beyond basic print and asks readers to step in the CyberCafe to chat with writers about their work. Unlike stuffy journals, the Morpo Review online magazine grabs your attention and refuses to let go.
Overall Rating: 8
Welcome to The Encyclopedia Mystica
URL: http://www.bart.nl/~micha/mystica.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Find out why Chronos kept track of time and discover the differences between gnomes and fairies in The Encyclopedia Mystica. This Netscape 2.0-enhanced reference guide would impress Zeus with its use of tables and index searches, yet disappoint him with the lack of illustrations. The encyclopedia provides short explanations about Greek and Norse gods, mystical creatures, magic weapons, or forgotten places. But without visuals, the site lacks the wonderment and magic of the very creatures it describes.
Overall Rating: 8
Kiernan's Wavefront Homepage
URL: http://www.unm.edu/~kholland/
Category: Art
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
While some net kids dabble in animation, others become MPEG movie geniuses. Wavefront separates the greatness from the gunk with a collection of Kiernan Holland's own MPEG creations. Download and watch short animations of cyber insects, hand shadows, rolling walrus heads, and blazing infernos. And, after viewing these curiosities, check out the Resumes Of Wavefront Experts At UNM section; prospective employers are encouraged to give jobs to Kiernan's classmates. The next George Lucas or David Lynch could be an MPEG hack in disguise.
Overall Rating: 8
A Basic ASL Aid
URL: http://home.earthlink.net/~masterstek/ASLDict.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Speaking without words is just what the Basic American Sign Language site hopes to teach people on the Web. Learn basic hand gestures for words such as Alaska, green, and toilet. The site also shows all the signs for the alphabet and numbers up to 10. Even though A Basic ASL Aid site is an excellent resource, it IS basic in design. Glitches in the site will take visitors to the bottom of the page when all they wanted was to look up the sign for ambulance. Perhaps mastering the sign for the word annoying would be more useful here.
Overall Rating: 7
Post Modern Culture
URL: http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/pmc/contents.all.html
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
With article titles such as "Pee-Wee Herman and the Post Modern Picaresque" and "Play It Again, Pac-Man," the Post Modern Culture site has to be hip. Poems by digital demona Kathy Acker and a special MOO just for readers show this journal off as anything but arrogant. PMC publishes six volumes of fiction, essays, poetry and reviews online without skimping on content and design quality.
Overall Rating: 7
The Stanford Electronic Humanities Review
URL: http://shr.stanford.edu/shreview
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
The folks at Stanford never stop thinking, and this journal proves that even more students and faculty skip sleeping. Read provocative essays on artificial intelligence and its impact on the humanities, the merger of cognitive science and literary criticism, and more. As with most academic-driven humanities journals, Stanford largely ignores design but at least makes an effort to join the future of new media by creating an image-map table of contents.
Overall Rating: 7
Kaleidoscope Resource
URL: http://www.eiu.edu/ac/busi/lum/kr.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
All those who remember spending their childhood hours gazing into a small rod with mirrors and colored glass will appreciate the Kaleidoscope Resource. This online guide has information on kaleidoscope history, artists, material sources for making a kaleidoscope, societies, Clifford Pickover's Kaleidoscope image of the month, and more. Transform your computer screen into an ever-changing myriad of colors with kaleidoscope screen savers. You don't have to be a child to experience the random artistic beauty of the Kaleidoscope Resource Page.
Overall Rating: 7
GOGREEN ECOTOURISM MAGAZINE
URL: http://www.peg.apc.org/~tasol/gogreen.html
Category: Publications
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Instead of shelling out a few dollars for a tacky resort t-shirt, GoGreen Ecotourism magazine wants tourists to plant a tree. This online magazine promotes eco-happy travel ideas complete with useful packing tips. GoGreen lacks any photos of tourists rolling up their sleeves and cleaning up a camp site, but you can read some of inspiring tales of traveler environmentalism in the EARTH-Y section. GoGreen dares you to go where most tourists fear to tread, void of air conditioning and plumbing -- the great outdoors.
Overall Rating: 7
Dayglo's Animation
URL: http://www.isisnet.com/dayglo/
Category: Art
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Flying sharks and neon pirates steer this Dayglo ship. You at home can download MPEG movie treasures of Mayan temples, robotic ferns, swimming schools of brickfish, and the superhero antics of Fifty P Man. Dayglo also offers a booty of free animation software and demos, and more links to amusing and weird sites that you can shake an MPEG leg at. The site should help beginning animators get a jump on their own creations instead of walking the plank alone. This, matey, is one ship everyone should sail.
Overall Rating: 7
Kill Yourself
URL: http://hops.cs.jhu.edu/~mbk/killyourself.html
Category: Publications
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Kill Yourself? Indeed. Readers may simply die from boredom waiting for this site to download. Kill Yourself focuses on punk and ska music, as well as political issues. The publication claims to be a "sociopolitical e-zine that explores everything that's wrong with the world today." If readers live long enough for the huge logos to finish moseying on in, they may be impressed by the angry twenty-something commentary. From essays on Bosnia to debates on censorship, Kill Yourself attacks issues from all sides.
Overall Rating: 7
Cyberwest Magazine
URL: http://www.netway.net/cyberwest/
Category: Publications
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Saddle up and head out for Cyberwest Magazine. Tap into the spiritual energy of Sedona, Ariz., or visit the Great Sand Dunes, the best sandbox in Colorado. Cyberwest displays some of the best snapshots this side of the Rio Grande. And when y'all cowboys are bored wrestling cattle, you can find a sunset to follow in the events calendar. Most of the news features focus on Colorado cities and ski resorts. Git along, little cyber doggie.
Overall Rating: 7
dalilink.html
URL: http://www.mercon.com/mercon/carl/dali-sur.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Melting clocks and broken telephones saturate Salvador Dali's surrealist art for more than mere shock value. Dalilink, the home page for this unusual artist, traces how events in Dali's life -- among them a meeting with Sigmund Freud, a narrow escape from the Nazi invasion of France, and his falling in love with soul mate Gala Dali -- got translated in his art. The site has plenty of links to other Dali-obsessed pages and museum exhibits. Dalilink offers an Internet refuge for this madman who was not mad.
Overall Rating: 6
Karl Kotas Home Page
URL: http://www.users.interport.net/~karlvent/
Category: Art
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
A man of many masks, Karl Kotas shamelessly displays his work as a graphic artist, painter, cartoonist, independent publisher, and art director on his home page. The Virtual Gallery has collages with grafitti-esque images of neon camels, women with five eyes, and alligators in suits. Kotas also creates an adult comic book series called "Vent," featuring semi-nude lions wearing go-go boots. For bizarre erotica on the net, sneak over to the erotica section, which exhibits an odd digital mirage of nude women.
Overall Rating: 6
Computing Dictionary
URL: http://wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk/
Category: Reference
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
What is the difference between HTML and HTIL? Is a scag as bad as it sounds? The Computing Dictionary explains acronyms, jargon, programming languages, architecture, operating systems, networking, theory, conventions, standards, telecoms, electronics, companies, products, history, and just about everything else to do with computing. Brush up on your hacker slang, or experiment with the ping command. The search option makes tracking down a specific subject easy. Newbies and GUI gurus alike will appreciate this extensive text-only guide to computing.
Overall Rating: 6
Jim Massey's HTML Workbook
URL: http://sokol.softaware.com/library/jim/jimhtml.htm
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Jim Massey wants to "enhance human potential by expanding the HTML technical envelope" with his HTML Workbook. This online workbook includes Massey's "1,001 Web Site Tour List," his "10 Standard-Setting Web Technology Page," the "Emerging Edge Tutorials" section, and links to Dr. Cye's "HTML Reviews of 130 Books," the "Timothy Leary Page," and more. There's also Web Server news, articles, and tools. Instead of pushing the technical envelope to other sites, Massey takes the time to explain where he thinks Web technology will go, and how we can use it to enhance our lives.
Overall Rating: 6
Scultura Arts Forum
URL: http://www.rain.org/~scultura/art.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
At Scultura, everything has a price. This online gallery is more like a shopping mart, encouraging visitors to buy art, pay for a membership, and browse classifieds. After swimming through the dollar signs, visitors can enjoy a broad spectrum of art from abstract oil paintings to Crayola portraits drawn on brown paper bags. The Global Arts links page is scarce -- perhaps because this online gallery charges $199 to link your site to Scultura. If Scultura focused more on tuning in to, instead of cashing in on, the Internet artist community, this site would be worth its price in pixels.
Overall Rating: 6
Quanta
URL: http://www.etext.org/Zines/Quanta/
Category: Publications
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Quanta never compromises between quality and quantity. This online science fiction publication features numerous short stories about robots, computers, vampires, big black cats, and headless snakes. Published both on and off the Web, the editors describe the publication as "shareword," and request a donation from those readers who enjoy the stories enough to put money where their mouths are. Quanta's content makes up for the lack of dazzling graphics and illustrations.
Overall Rating: 6
VAJ Magazine Issue
URL: http://www.etext.org/Zines/VAJ/
Category: Publications
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
VAJ is a Canadian music magazine featuring interviews and reviews of underground and independent bands such as Squirm, Forgotten Valley Gene Pool, Stone Tree, and Mother Earth. Even though the zine promises exclusive focus to indie bands, the main feature in one of the issues is a full-length interview with the mainstream band Faith No More. If readers want a break from another tour bus tale, they can also read movie reviews and humorous horoscopes. VAJ is not a typical online music mag.
Overall Rating: 6
Pneuma WorldWind
URL: http://www.turnpike.net/~Pneuma/front.htm
Category: Publications
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Pneuma WorldWind is as cryptic as its name. Pneuma editors promise not to follow traditional tenets of online publishing. This Web journal does such a good job being non-traditional, most readers may wonder if the publication is being obscure or elitist. Instead of labeling a section "fiction" or "related links," sections are entitled "Educate," "Old Capitol" and "Lifebreath." Once this journal figures out its audience, readers should be able to breathe easier.
Overall Rating: 6
The Logical World of Etymology
URL: http://www.phoenix.net/~melanie/thelogic.htm
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Discover the hidden definition in every word by dissecting it. Find out that "honey moon" has bitter inspiration while "hot dog" has an amusing one. Learn some Latin and Greek prefixes, or travel to other related sites. Unfortunately, graphics take a backseat in this text-o-phile page, but most of us will be too busy looking up our favorite words to notice.
Overall Rating: 5
Etymology of Names
URL: http://www.engr.uvic.ca/~mcampbel/etym.html
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Fido, which literally means "I am faithful," might be a more suitable name for a child than Howard, defined as "ewe herder." On the Etymology of Names site, almost anyone from Aaron to Zoe can research the origin of his or her name. There are plenty of surprises; Doris, for example, means "sacrificial knife." What a Bonnie site!
Overall Rating: 5
Grammar and Style Notes
URL: http://www.english.upenn.edu/~jlynch/grammar.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Stop dangling participles and the abuse of semi-colons with the help of Grammar and Style Notes. This online reference guide, written by an English teacher, covers every usage and style mishap imaginable. Grammar and Style Notes also helps writers avoid plagiarism with the rules of citation. The guide explains the evils of split infinitives, run-on sentences, and overused cliches. Don't let your next research paper go to hell in a hand basket when Grammar and Style Notes is the next best thing to having your own private online editor.
Overall Rating: 5
Home Page Generator
URL: http://www.cs.uoregon.edu/~jolson/makehome.html
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Instead of going through all the anguish of mastering HTML, visit the Home Page Generator and make a minimal home page in minutes. This form-driven site asks for basic information to include on the page such as the title, contact information, and a bit of text. You can preview your newly created page or copy the code to add your own graphics and backgrounds. The Home Page Generator has yet to offer the razzle-dazzle options of forms, tables, or animation, but gives HTML-phobes a chance to create Web sites of their own without much hassle.
Overall Rating: 5
HTML Help
URL: http://www.obscure.org/~jaws/htmlhelp.html
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Aside from the nifty graphic of an industrial worker, the HTML Help site is a bland list of HTML design tutorials available online. With information on HTML writing, converters, browsers, graphic viewers, and news groups, HTML Help offers a push in the right direction. Yet with all the HTML bookmark lists already on the Web, this site should try to offer something more than just a push.
Overall Rating: 5
New Mexico Album
URL: http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/philg/new-mexico/album.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Chili pepper vistas and orange sunsets saturate Philip Greenspun's online photo essay about New Mexico. This unique take on the Land of Enchantment explores the housing crunch, satellite dish invasions, and native people hiding from Sante Fe yuppies. The site is only one page long with a few scattered sentences and a total of 17 photos. Created by the same guy who brought us the popular travel Web diary Travels With Samantha, this photo journal falls short, and needs more personality to justify its download time.
Overall Rating: 5
Net Rag
URL: http://www.infostarbase.com/tnr.html
Category: Publications
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Cha-ching! It's easy to hear the cyber cash registers ring when visiting Net Rag. For a weekly $99 sponsorship fee, a company can have its URL displayed on this online zine. It's confusing whether Net Rag is a magazine or merely a series of commercials. The site publishes more advertisements than articles. Even though section categories range from animals to finance, many of the articles are text-only and lack personality. Somehow the name Net Rag seems appropriate.
Overall Rating: 5
Rare Map Collection
URL: http://scarlett.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/maps.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
No one should be lost in a time warp without a map. In the Hargrett Library at the University of Georgia, there exists more than 800 rare maps spanning 500 years. On this Web site, only 20 percent of the entire collection is presented. Historians will not be disappointed with the selection of early maps depicting the New World, Colonial America, Revolutionary America and Civil War America. Many of the maps focus on more specific topics, such as urban planning and transportation. The site offers little textual information on the significance of the changing maps, but this online collection is a rare Web find.
Overall Rating: 5
United States Patent and Trademark Office
URL: http://www.uspto.gov/
Category: Reference
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Inventors who think they've created the best widget in the world should check out this site before hitting the marketplace. Find out what's needed to patent an invention, and who to contact for legal advice. Discover the proper way to revive an abandoned trademark application. Eye-twinkling graphics are absent, but the site actually serves a purpose by allowing users to download crucial forms necessary to safeguard inventions. There's no reason to be a mad scientist when one can be a happy inventor.
Overall Rating: 5
Official Internet Quayle Quote List
URL: http://www.xmission.com/~mwalker/DQ/quayle/qq/quayle.quotes.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Some things are better left unsaid. Nobody knows this better than former Vice President Dan Quayle. On the Official Internet Quayle Quote List, Web surfers can chuckle through Quayle's jumbled jargon covering topics such as history, the environment, family values, economics, geography, science, women's issues, and more. The tireless list will keep you laughing for hours. Surf until your funny bone snaps, and always remember Dan's wise advice: "If we do not succeed, then we run the risk of failure."
Overall Rating: 5
The Common Gateway Interface
URL: http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/cgi/
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Enter The Common Gateway Interface site for useful information on CGI. Common Gateway Interface, or CGI, is a standard for external gateway programs to interface with HTTP servers. Where a plain HTML document that the Web daemon retrieves is static (which means it is a text file that doesn't change), a CGI program, however, is executed in real-time, out-putting dynamic information. The site explains this concept further with examples of CGI forms and other functions. Learn various simple CGI commands in the archive or the online tutorial. The Common Gateway Interface site is a crucial bookmark for both beginning and advanced HTML programmers.
Overall Rating: 5
Web Weavers Warren
URL: http://fox.nstn.ca/~tmonk/weaver/weaver.html
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Web Weavers Warren warrants a big wet kiss for supplying creative professionals with wall-to-wall links on Web design. Follow links to sites specializing in Web backgrounds, browsers, CGI, counters, editors, HTML, icons, image maps, newsgroups, Perl programming, SGML, style, utilities, VRML, and more. Web Weavers Warren could use more graphics other than a yellow wizard to get you to stay and look around, but with myriad links, most visitors would bookmark this site as a useful reference link anyway.
Overall Rating: 5
The El-Cheapo Web Page
URL: http://www.oanet.com/homepage/darryls/cheapo.htm
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Thrifty would-be Web site designers have an online muse called The El-Cheapo Web Page. Here you can learn where to go for free Web page space, cheap HTML software, and copyright-free graphics. El-Cheapo has links galore to other pages that offer help in building a Web site from scratch or to add more snazzy features to one already established. The site itself could prosper from its own advice by showing off more graphics and CGI scripts, but it seems the Web master wants visitors to learn, not necessarily to be entertained.
Overall Rating: 5
Medical Humanities
URL: http://mchip00.med.nyu.edu/lit-med/medhum.html
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
At first glance, Medical Humanities seems to be an easy access database with an elaborate bibliography of articles and texts, but visitors will quickly realize that the main focus of the site is the promotion of certain classes at NYU. No good student of medicine diagnoses a problem without taking a closer look, however; put the site under a microscope and you'll see a useful little amoeba called "Literature and Medicine" which has a large listing of summaries on novels about diverse topics from AIDS treatment to the confessions of an opium addict.
Overall Rating: 4
HUMANITAS
URL: http://www.access.digex.net/~nhi/hum.htm
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
HUMANITAS makes most highbrows look like a bunch of Gilligans. From the National Humanities Institute in Washington, D.C., this journal has articles on post modern politics, reason and imagination. The only entertaining part of the site is the poem about murderous leeks narrated by a paranoiac in the fridge. With no graphics or attention to design, this site is bound to lose most of us entertain-me-while-teaching-me types.
Overall Rating: 4
English as a Second Language
URL: http://www.lang.uiuc.edu/r-li5/esl/
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Habla Ingles? If not, then English as a Second Language is a good place to start learning how to say "where's the bathroom" like an anxious American. The page serves as a directory of links to other ESL sites broken down into categories (listening & speaking, reading and writing), as well as offering pointers to other ESL students' home pages. Not much by way of original content or graphics, this directory is nevertheless more purposeful than most language spots on the Web.
Overall Rating: 4
Department of Fine Arts Okanagan University College
URL: http://oksw01.okanagan.bc.ca/fiar/hndbkhom.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
If art expresses emotions, illustrates concepts, or persuades audiences, this online art history handbook only succeeds in boring us. One might expect an art history site from the Department of Fine Arts at Okanagan University College to be avant-garde and actually display some paintings with its tips on writing an A+ paper. But no single sketch is found, only text upon text about the do's and don'ts of writing. Visit this site if you're stuck on writing an art critique for class and need some impressive words. Otherwise, dip your paintbrush elsewhere.
Overall Rating: 4
FREE Internet Encyclopedia
URL: http://www.cs.uh.edu/~clifton/encyclopedia.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Once you get past the extensive parent disclaimer, you'll find this encyclopedia is yet another Internet site directory, similar to Yahoo! and WebCrawler. Topics are divided into MacroReference and MicroReference sections, depending on the subject size. From African art to Zen archives, almost every subject has a home page in its honor. However, the title of this site misleads you into believing the encyclopedia publishes original content and definitions. The FREE Internet Encyclopedia is merely a bookmark list and nothing more.
Overall Rating: 4
The World Wide Web Consortium W3C
URL: http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Producing specifications and referencing software, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) works within the Internet community to help promote standards on the Web. Read about W3C's philosophical views of the Web, or see for yourself what W3C plans to focus on -- whether it be security concepts or HTML scripting. W3C lacks to graphics to keep most visitors' attention spans, but those interested in standardizing the Web will find a wealth of information and opportunity to get involved.
Overall Rating: 4
Rulers
URL: http://www.geopages.com/Athens/1058/rulers.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Kingdoms rise and fall almost as quickly as URL addresses change. The Rulers site makes sure the presidents, prime ministers and royalty of the world are not forgotten, at least not online. Look up the first secretaries of the Albanian Party of Labour, or count how many world leaders have the first name Ed. Leaders' birth dates are included, as well as the years they died. The Rulers site is void of any mug shots, but still remains an excellent resource for those interested in world history and politics.
Overall Rating: 4
Mary Ann King
URL: http://www.interedge.com/MaryAnneHome.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
She wants to sell you an eggplant for $95. Actually, she wants to sell a painting of an eggplant still life from her Web site. This Kansas artist is not alone in her quest to sell artwork online, but the site offers nothing more than a list of paintings, small thumbnail images, and, of course, ordering information. Mary Ann could have done a better service to the Internet community by explaining why these painting have meaning, and she could have made the art community proud by incorporating the net as a learning experience -- not a financial shortcut.
Overall Rating: 4
Word For Word
URL: http://www.peg.apc.org/~toconnor/welcome.html
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Word for Word needs some gifs and jpegs. This site, which promotes the column of the literary editor of The Courier-Mail Queensland newspaper, does little to spark much interest. Void of any surprises, Word for Word has a difficult-to-read format and zero design elements. There's more to good Web publishing than just words.
Overall Rating: 3
The Gypsy Lore Society
URL: http://hamp.hampshire.edu/~ratS88/gls/
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
The Gypsy Lore Society has a lot to learn from the people it celebrates. Gypsies are historically known for their colorful vagabond lives, whereas this site will be known for its bland little existence. The Society publishes both a journal and a newsletter, but doesn't bother to put the articles online. None of the information of value is in hypertext. Gypsy Lore enthusiasts will be better off following one of the other resource links to a different site.
Overall Rating: 3
Hot Hollywood Gossip
URL: http://members.aol.com/editorman/gossip.html
Category: Publications
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Random scribbles on bathroom walls have better graphics and content than Hot Hollywood Gossip. This text-only zine takes all the fun out of talking behind people's backs. Instead of feeding our heads with eye candy and tasty tales, Hot Hollywood Gossip teases readers with one-sentence rumors, and a series of sarcastic questions. Readers can ask for free e-mail subscriptions of the "unabridged" gossip column. Then again, a trip to the bathroom may be more entertaining.
Overall Rating: 3
WordNet Home Page
URL: http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/~wn/
Category: Reference
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
WordNet can be described in one word: dull. As an online reference system, WordNet claims to explore the current psycholinguistic theories of human memory that say nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are organized into synonym sects. Each sect then represents one underlying lexical concept. The only concept most of us will pick up from WordNet is that most psychologists and professors can't grasp the idea of quality Web design. With absolutely zero graphics, WordNet bores you from the beginning. The site encourages you to download WordNet papers and software, but never explains why most visitors would care to do so.
Overall Rating: 3
The Tele-Garden
URL: http://www.usc.edu/dept/garden/
Category: Science
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Tele-Garden is an actual garden planted, watered, and viewed by a robot controlled by members via the Web. The interface is excellent, and you can communicate with other gardeners via a message wall. This is one of the most technologically advanced sites I have ever seen on the Web. It's designed to be viewed for a short period of time on a regular basis. And I believe it personifies the nature of the Web. Like the Web, it's creative, offers an interesting use of technology, and, most of all, is a place you can waste away hours doing something completely useless.
Overall Rating: 18
Pat Meier Associates
URL: http://www.patmeier.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Part advertisement for the firm, part platform to promote its clients, this site ends up as a disjointed mix of elements. It doesn't give much information about the PR firm, and the client information has the feeling of a small industrial fair -- press-releases from seemingly unrelated companies all thrown together on one site. I got no sense of what Pat Meier Associates has done for their clients or any 'feel' for the company. There is an interesting guide to restaurants in San Francisco's 'Multimedia Gulch', though, that would be of interest if you are planning to visit the area.
Overall Rating: 17
Forte Technologies, Inc.
URL: http://www.fortevr.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Forte's personal virtual reality headset is on the cutting edge of gaming technology. For game junkies who haven't purchased one yet, this site offers excellent product information, tables of software that support it, and locations of Forte retailers. If you're already the proud owner of a VFX1, there is an excellent software archive, mediocre technical support, links to VRML sites, VR news, and developer information to keep you up to date with the rapidly evolving VR world. All game fans will love the excellent graphics and the section on hacks and cheats for popular computer games.
Overall Rating: 17
NovaLogic, Inc.
URL: http://www.novalogic.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Looking for a good war machine simulator? Whether your fetish is tanks, subs, planes, or helicopters, NovaLogic has your software. The site offers in-depth descriptions of its products, including reviews from the critics, a less than impressive collections of links, and customer support information. If you are considering buying one of it's games, this would be a very good site, if not, there is not much reason to visit.
Overall Rating: 17
Wilkins Outdoor Network
URL: http://www.outdoor-ad.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
This brilliantly conceived site walks you step by step through the convoluted world of outdoor advertising. In an hour you will talk like an expert on out-of-home media and Wilkins will practically write your marketing report for you. The pages elaborate on how to plan intelligent advertising decisions, what outdoor media would be best for you, and how to get the most for your marketing dollar. You will also be quite familiar with Wilkins, its departments, and the Wilkins services. The whole site is extremely well organized and attractive -- a must for anyone considering outdoor advertising. Blue Light
Overall Rating: 17
Airwalk Online
URL: http://www.airwalk.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Few things are as important in todays hip sports as having the right footwear. In this spirit, Airwalk is happy to provide us with a sampling of product information, pictures, links, and interviews with the pros who endorse its skating, snow boarding, and mountain biking shoes. Also included is an interesting reader feedback section where you can read letters such as the "skater who beat up the fool who tried to steal his Airwalks." This is an extremely well done site: slick graphics, cool technology, and a cohesive theme. When I visited, it was still under heavy construction, so it should be even cooler by the time you read this.
Overall Rating: 17
Franco Public Relations Group
URL: http://franco.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
This site provides a clear image of the Franco Group, and includes many items of interest to the PR community in general. The run-down of the company gives a good view of the different organizational units, what services it provides, and some of its current clients. A very well done staff bio section includes pictures, phone numbers, a biographical sketch, and a favorite link for each of the group members (no e-mail!). For those not interested in the Franco group, the site includes some excellent PR case studies, a section of useful pointers for public speaking and presentations, and an art gallery of the groups graphic design work.
Overall Rating: 17
Neiman Marcus
URL: http://www.neimanmarcus.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Neiman Marcus is assured a place in Internet history for the notorious "$250.00 Cookie recipe" story, which has mysteriously appeared in my inbox at least twice a year for the past several years. (If you see it, do us all a favor, don't forward it.) The site addresses this myth directly, and provides a variety of promotional material: Neiman Marcus history, a not too helpful fashion section, a store finder, and calendars of upcoming events in individual stores. Regular shoppers will want to sign up for an e-mailing list to receive special notices about upcoming sales and events near them.
Overall Rating: 17
Pat Meier Associates
URL: http://www.patmeier.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Part advertisement for the firm, part platform to promote its clients, this site ends up as a disjointed mix of elements. It doesn't give much information about the PR firm, and the client information has the feeling of a small industrial fair -- press-releases from seemingly unrelated companies all thrown together on one site. I got no sense of what Pat Meier Associates has done for their clients or any 'feel' for the company. There is an interesting guide to restaurants in San Francisco's 'Multimedia Gulch', though, that would be of interest if you are planning to visit the area.
Overall Rating: 17
Forte Technologies, Inc.
URL: http://www.fortevr.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Forte's personal virtual reality headset is on the cutting edge of gaming technology. For game junkies who haven't purchased one yet, this site offers excellent product information, tables of software that support it, and locations of Forte retailers. If you're already the proud owner of a VFX1, there is an excellent software archive, mediocre technical support, links to VRML sites, VR news, and developer information to keep you up to date with the rapidly evolving VR world. All game fans will love the excellent graphics and the section on hacks and cheats for popular computer games.
Overall Rating: 17
NovaLogic, Inc.
URL: http://www.novalogic.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Looking for a good war machine simulator? Whether your fetish is tanks, subs, planes, or helicopters, NovaLogic has your software. The site offers in-depth descriptions of its products, including reviews from the critics, a less than impressive collections of links, and customer support information. If you are considering buying one of it's games, this would be a very good site, if not, there is not much reason to visit.
Overall Rating: 17
Wilkins Outdoor Network
URL: http://www.outdoor-ad.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
This brilliantly conceived site walks you step by step through the convoluted world of outdoor advertising. In an hour you will talk like an expert on out-of-home media and Wilkins will practically write your marketing report for you. The pages elaborate on how to plan intelligent advertising decisions, what outdoor media would be best for you, and how to get the most for your marketing dollar. You will also be quite familiar with Wilkins, its departments, and the Wilkins services. The whole site is extremely well organized and attractive -- a must for anyone considering outdoor advertising. Blue Light
Overall Rating: 17
Airwalk Online
URL: http://www.airwalk.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Few things are as important in todays hip sports as having the right footwear. In this spirit, Airwalk is happy to provide us with a sampling of product information, pictures, links, and interviews with the pros who endorse its skating, snow boarding, and mountain biking shoes. Also included is an interesting reader feedback section where you can read letters such as the "skater who beat up the fool who tried to steal his Airwalks." This is an extremely well done site: slick graphics, cool technology, and a cohesive theme. When I visited, it was still under heavy construction, so it should be even cooler by the time you read this.
Overall Rating: 17
Franco Public Relations Group
URL: http://franco.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
This site provides a clear image of the Franco Group, and includes many items of interest to the PR community in general. The run-down of the company gives a good view of the different organizational units, what services it provides, and some of its current clients. A very well done staff bio section includes pictures, phone numbers, a biographical sketch, and a favorite link for each of the group members (no e-mail!). For those not interested in the Franco group, the site includes some excellent PR case studies, a section of useful pointers for public speaking and presentations, and an art gallery of the groups graphic design work.
Overall Rating: 17
Neiman Marcus
URL: http://www.neimanmarcus.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Neiman Marcus is assured a place in Internet history for the notorious "$250.00 Cookie recipe" story, which has mysteriously appeared in my inbox at least twice a year for the past several years. (If you see it, do us all a favor, don't forward it.) The site addresses this myth directly, and provides a variety of promotional material: Neiman Marcus history, a not too helpful fashion section, a store finder, and calendars of upcoming events in individual stores. Regular shoppers will want to sign up for an e-mailing list to receive special notices about upcoming sales and events near them.
Overall Rating: 17
Peachpit
URL: http://www.peachpit.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
This is a well-designed site; it's easy to find what you're looking for, it's not overburdened with needless graphics, and there's a good search engine. You can create an order while browsing the site, then send it in electronically, but the form isn't secure. Another downer: The descriptions of the computer books are too limited to be helpful. But reader forums and a good technical support section add to the quality of this site. If you already own Peachpit books, especially its Macintosh Bible series, you'll probably want to check the site out.
Overall Rating: 17
Edna Creek Mercantile
URL: http://www.libby.org/mds/mds2.htm
Category: Shopping
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
This site was created for those who want to combine the old-fashioned home-y-ness of the small town Mercantile, with the speed and convienence of the Web. The Folk's over at Edna Creek have a love for the romantic imagery of the old west-- this site brims with it. The product selection is rather limited, but you can order all items over the Web, and they are featured on attractive, well designed pages. Anyone who prefers mountain villages to cities, and trout fishing to golf, will want to swing by the Merc when passing through Edna Creek.
Overall Rating: 16
Long Grove Confectionery Company
URL: http://www.longgrove.com/
Category: Shopping
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Forget Mom's birthday? Want to send that special someone from the chat room a chocolate computer? Never fear, Long Grove is ready to meet your needs 24 hours a day, and with a wide and quirky variety of mouthwatering chocolates to chose from, you should be able to find the perfect gift to bring a smile to any chocoholics face. You can order all their delicacies from a form, have them gift wrapped and delivered, and get a free box of chocolates for yourself. Despite all this, since the only payment option Long Grove gives you is plastic, and it's forms are insecure, I probably won't be ordering any luscious chocolate tackle boxes.
Overall Rating: 16
X-Large Inte(r)network
URL: http://www.cinenet.net/xlarge/
Category: Shopping
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
For today's young suburban fashion plate, X-large brings it's entire clothing catalog to the web. Unfortunately, it just scanned in the catalog, viewable one bandwidth-eating page at a time. The site is much more than a catalog, though, developing an image of the company as a propagator of irreverent, angst-ridden, youth culture. From video game manuals to an essay praising the merits of liquor, X-Large runs down what's hip in sound bite sized chunks. It has a small archive of sounds and video, and a very active open forum which is mostly a discussion of Hip-Hop. The site is very cool, definitely worth a visit even if you are not interested in their catalog.
Overall Rating: 16
Backpacker Guide
URL: http://www.irelands-web.ie/tourism/bpguide/bpguide.htm
Category: Travel
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
The Backpacker Guide is not about to replace the traditional travel guide, but if you're planning to travel Great Britain, New Zealand, or Australia on a shoe-string budget, this site will be an indispensable supplement to it. No paper guide can give you up-to-the-minute information on your destination, and what traditional guide would give you a list of cyber-cafes where you can take time out from your travels to sate your net addiction. The information is not so in-depth, and several links did not function, but there are a lot of tips and facts that you would be unlikely to find elsewhere.
Overall Rating: 16
Speedware Corporation, Inc.
URL: http://www.speedware.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
This site is geared toward developers using, or considering purchasing, Speedware software, including its 4GL for interfacing applications with networks, an open platform development environment, and other network development tools. If you're a web developer and have never heard of Speedware, this site is worth a visit; the company offers good product information and the site is very attractive. Current users will want to check out the Speedware partnership deal and the customer support database (only accessible by registered users.)
Overall Rating: 16
Edna Creek Mercantile
URL: http://www.libby.org/mds/mds2.htm
Category: Shopping
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
This site was created for those who want to combine the old-fashioned home-y-ness of the small town Mercantile, with the speed and convienence of the Web. The Folk's over at Edna Creek have a love for the romantic imagery of the old west-- this site brims with it. The product selection is rather limited, but you can order all items over the Web, and they are featured on attractive, well designed pages. Anyone who prefers mountain villages to cities, and trout fishing to golf, will want to swing by the Merc when passing through Edna Creek.
Overall Rating: 16
Speedware Corporation, Inc.
URL: http://www.speedware.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
This site is geared toward developers using, or considering purchasing, Speedware software, including its 4GL for interfacing applications with networks, an open platform development environment, and other network development tools. If you're a web developer and have never heard of Speedware, this site is worth a visit; the company offers good product information and the site is very attractive. Current users will want to check out the Speedware partnership deal and the customer support database (only accessible by registered users.)
Overall Rating: 16
FenderWorld
URL: http://www.fender.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Guitar heroes will love this site. It contains a complete catalog of all things Fender, a FAQ, Tech Tips, and miscellaneous guitar trivia. It also has the handy 'Axe Dater': Enter the serial number of your Fender and it tells you when it was made. Cool. An online version of its magazine, Frontline, features current artists and their Fenders. If you're so inspired, you can also subscribe to the magazine (and get a free bonus Bon Jovi CD), join the Fender Club, or check out the guitar links. Perhaps most fulfilling of the cultural insights: "Jam Out" has apparently replaced "Rock Out" as the appropriate term of guitar jubilance.
Overall Rating: 16
SRI International
URL: http://www.sri.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
SRI, a non-profit research organization spun off from Stanford University, has created a Web site detailing its services and projects. There's a lot of information, much of it quite technical, about what the organization is up to. Amateur scientists with an interest in applied scientific research could spend hours at this site reading about fascinating projects. Industrial executives considering research collaborations could also spend hours scooping out good ideas. It's a fascinating organization, and the site does a good job of chronicling its activities.
Overall Rating: 16
Andersen Consulting
URL: http://www.ac.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Anderson is an international giant in the management and high-tech consulting industry. This means that some of the best and brightest minds around work on the Anderson payroll and Web site. If you're interested in technology, you'll find fascinating reading here, from tomes on the future of multimedia to analyses of retailing on the Internet. The site has a slight feel of having been thrown together rather than planned, but I didn't find that too much of a distraction. Job recruitment, technology discussion forums, and Internet news also make this site of value.
Overall Rating: 16
Codex Privacy Site
URL: http://www.thecodex.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Playground for the paranoid. Codex offers electronic eavesdropping products and services, including things no one can live without, such as a Conference Room RF Shielding device. The site has a great section of links; anyone into conspiracy theory will love them. From Mossad to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the links cover topics such as hacking, privacy, spying, and international intrigue. The site also offers practical information (such as how to tap a phone). You also have the chance to order an e-mail version of its catalog (I enjoyed it) or to subscribe to the newsletter. Don't miss the disclaimer in the How To section.
Overall Rating: 16
Puppetry
URL: http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~rosesage/puppetry/puppetry.html
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Puppetry is one of the worlds most venerable art forms, yet it is usually not considered "serious" in this country -- an impression this site goes to great lengths to change. Whether you are a serious puppeteer, or totally new to the art, there is an extensive amount of well-organized information to capture your interest. The site is arranged by types of puppetry, and includes famous puppets and puppeteers, current puppet exhibits and touring companies, online resources, mail order supply houses, and much more!
Overall Rating: 16
Long Grove Confectionery Company
URL: http://www.longgrove.com/
Category: Shopping
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Forget Mom's birthday? Want to send that special someone from the chat room a chocolate computer? Never fear, Long Grove is ready to meet your needs 24 hours a day, and with a wide and quirky variety of mouthwatering chocolates to chose from, you should be able to find the perfect gift to bring a smile to any chocoholics face. You can order all their delicacies from a form, have them gift wrapped and delivered, and get a free box of chocolates for yourself. Despite all this, since the only payment option Long Grove gives you is plastic, and it's forms are insecure, I probably won't be ordering any luscious chocolate tackle boxes.
Overall Rating: 16
X-Large Inte(r)network
URL: http://www.cinenet.net/xlarge/
Category: Shopping
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
For today's young suburban fashion plate, X-large brings it's entire clothing catalog to the web. Unfortunately, it just scanned in the catalog, viewable one bandwidth-eating page at a time. The site is much more than a catalog, though, developing an image of the company as a propagator of irreverent, angst-ridden, youth culture. From video game manuals to an essay praising the merits of liquor, X-Large runs down what's hip in sound bite sized chunks. It has a small archive of sounds and video, and a very active open forum which is mostly a discussion of Hip-Hop. The site is very cool, definitely worth a visit even if you are not interested in their catalog.
Overall Rating: 16
European Rail Travel Index
URL: http://www.starnetinc.com/eurorail/railindx.htm
Category: Travel
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
It is very sad to look at this site and reflect upon the sorry state of American railroads. If you are going to Europe, however, rail is the only way to travel, and this site will tell you everything you need to know to make your trip trouble free. It is an amazing resource, packed full of detailed, factual information about the European rail network, Eurail passes, rates, trip planning, and much more. Particularly noteworthy is the detailed information about differences in railroads and eurail pass coverage from country to country. Essential reading for anyone Europe bound.
Overall Rating: 16
Backpacker Guide
URL: http://www.irelands-web.ie/tourism/bpguide/bpguide.htm
Category: Travel
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
The Backpacker Guide is not about to replace the traditional travel guide, but if you're planning to travel Great Britain, New Zealand, or Australia on a shoe-string budget, this site will be an indispensable supplement to it. No paper guide can give you up-to-the-minute information on your destination, and what traditional guide would give you a list of cyber-cafes where you can take time out from your travels to sate your net addiction. The information is not so in-depth, and several links did not function, but there are a lot of tips and facts that you would be unlikely to find elsewhere.
Overall Rating: 16
Jerry's Music Shack
URL: http://www.freemusic.com/
Category: Shopping
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Free music? No way. Jerry gives us an interesting, but short, list of 'free or almost free' music. The catch is you have to buy other items, such as books, and the CDs come thrown in. It seems kind of like calling those CD-ROMs that come pasted into the back of $50.00 computer books free -- I don't buy it. This site does have a delightfully random sampling of music, but there were only about five CDs listed when I visited, and they were arranged in an cumbersome, albeit attractive, manner.
Overall Rating: 15
Eastgate Systems
URL: http://www.eastgate.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Hypertext fiction is a fascinating literary form in which you pick your starting point and then follow whatever links catch your eye. Eventually the disparate elements begin to crystallize into a cohesive work. This site provides two sample hypertexts for your perusal, as well as descriptions and reviews of the works Eastgate publishes. The company also publishes non-fiction, a hypertext authoring system, and Web Squirrel -- a drag and drop URL manager. You can download a demo (Mac only) and check out other peoples URL collections. If you have never experienced hypertexts, check this site out.
Overall Rating: 15
Grossman and Roth, P.A.
URL: http://www.gateintl.com/GR/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
This is a classic example of the McWeb site: little information about the law firm, few links in places that almost demand them, and very little information about law in general. Especially bad are the scanned newspaper articles by the partners -- bandwidth hogs and almost totally unreadable. It seems like a pretty admirable law firm, but you don't get much of an impression of it from the little information the site provides.
Overall Rating: 15
Jerry's Music Shack
URL: http://www.freemusic.com/
Category: Shopping
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Free music? No way. Jerry gives us an interesting, but short, list of 'free or almost free' music. The catch is you have to buy other items, such as books, and the CDs come thrown in. It seems kind of like calling those CD-ROMs that come pasted into the back of $50.00 computer books free -- I don't buy it. This site does have a delightfully random sampling of music, but there were only about five CDs listed when I visited, and they were arranged in an cumbersome, albeit attractive, manner.
Overall Rating: 15
Eastgate Systems
URL: http://www.eastgate.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Hypertext fiction is a fascinating literary form in which you pick your starting point and then follow whatever links catch your eye. Eventually the disparate elements begin to crystallize into a cohesive work. This site provides two sample hypertexts for your perusal, as well as descriptions and reviews of the works Eastgate publishes. The company also publishes non-fiction, a hypertext authoring system, and Web Squirrel -- a drag and drop URL manager. You can download a demo (Mac only) and check out other peoples URL collections. If you have never experienced hypertexts, check this site out.
Overall Rating: 15
Grossman and Roth, P.A.
URL: http://www.gateintl.com/GR/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
This is a classic example of the McWeb site: little information about the law firm, few links in places that almost demand them, and very little information about law in general. Especially bad are the scanned newspaper articles by the partners -- bandwidth hogs and almost totally unreadable. It seems like a pretty admirable law firm, but you don't get much of an impression of it from the little information the site provides.
Overall Rating: 15
Chrysler Technology
URL: http://www.chryslercorp.com/ctc.html
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Chrysler is evidently very proud of its testing facilities. Here you can learn all about them. Unfortunately, the site's editors chose boring pictures of wind tunnels instead of photographs of cars smashing into walls at high speeds. I enjoyed looking at Chrysler's concept cars, which always seem to be the ones I wished were in production. Of course, no corporate site could be complete without news releases, ad campaign info, and a section espousing the company's great environmental track record. Like the rest of the site, these sections are conservative and offer few surprises, but are presented well.
Overall Rating: 15
Brian's Progressive Pages
URL: http://paul.spu.edu/~sinnfein/progressive.html
Category: Political
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
A site for left-barking watchdogs. This page offers articles and links on "patriots," militias, and the all-around Far Right. There are a good number of links to other sites, and a good sampling of reports from respectable sources. While the site could use more links on a broader range of issues, those wishing to monitor the right side of the Web may find it an interesting starting point.
Overall Rating: 15
Maytag-Home of Dependability
URL: http://www.maytag.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
I never really liked the Maytag Man. Unfortunately, he's prominently featured in this site. Maytag provides a fair amount of information about its appliances -- prices, warranty info, and general features, and it has a handy remodeling guide that gives the dimensions of each appliance. My favorite area of the site, the tips section, offers general suggestions on how to remove laundry stains and keep vegetables fresh in your refrigerator. I can't imagine a lot a people go appliance shopping on the Web, but if you need or want to, this is a good place to start. And there are pretty pictures!
Overall Rating: 15
Young Chang
URL: http://www.youngchang.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Young Chang is one of the largest piano makers in the world. Piano fans will find some items of general interest here, such as a section on how to find a piano teacher and listings of piano organizations. Descriptions of piano models, though, are limited to describing what types of finishes they come in; too much attention is devoted to expounding why the company's manufacturing process produces superior pianos. There are a few silly sections, such as information on Young Chang's game-show giveaways.
Overall Rating: 14
HarperCollins
URL: http://www.harpercollins.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Someone forgot to tell the good folks at Harper Collins that a site should be planned out before it's coded. You'll find lists of titles with decent descriptions, but the order of the books makes no sense. Some titles are separated from the main lists, in different "Subject Categories," on different parts of the site, and they're often broken down by subsidiary publisher -- which seems like a silly way to organize titles. There is little here besides these lists. Inexplicably cryptic icons appear on some of the pages deeper in the site. Click away, but there's no way to know in advance where you might end up.
Overall Rating: 14
Random House
URL: http://www.randomhouse.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Want to browse Random House's book offerings by looking at titles, authors, and a brief description of each book? Well, you can't. To make up for this, there is an extremely well-designed search engine to navigate the extensive list of Random House titles. Of course, once you get the titles, you still don't find much information. The site does have good theme pages relating to some of the publisher's more popular current books. Here you'll find forums, links, and discussion.
Overall Rating: 14
Alaska's Kenai Peninsula Resources
URL: http://www.ptialaska.net/~kenaipen/
Category: Travel
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
A man sits in a small room in Alaska. Having heard the Web is where it's at, and possessing a little techno-smartness, he decides the way to make his Alaskan fortune is to start a local business directory and charge business $15/month to be listed. Three months later few businesses have signed up and in desperation he pleads with them on his Web site, even trying to enlist the community for help. All to no avail, the Web has just not caught on with businesses in southern Alaska. So he sits at his computer, hoping the phone will ring. I hope it will too.
Overall Rating: 14
Eaton's
URL: http://www.eatons.com/
Category: Shopping
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
One would think Eaton's, a very large Canadian department store chain, could find it's way to a decent Web site designer. The site is about as attractive as an employee breakroom, and loaded with features such as; text only fashion reports that are both dull and out of date, a shopping section that has maybe 50 items you *can't* order online, and a sleepy customer service section with little useful information. The next time you're traveling through Canada, be sure and check out the store finder, which lists locations and hours for each Eaton's.
Overall Rating: 13
European Rail Travel Index
URL: http://www.starnetinc.com/eurorail/railindx.htm
Category: Travel
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
It is very sad to look at this site and reflect upon the sorry state of American railroads. If you are going to Europe, however, rail is the only way to travel, and this site will tell you everything you need to know to make your trip trouble free. It is an amazing resource, packed full of detailed, factual information about the European rail network, Eurail passes, rates, trip planning, and much more. Particularly noteworthy is the detailed information about differences in railroads and eurail pass coverage from country to country. Essential reading for anyone Europe bound.
Overall Rating: 13
Eaton's
URL: http://www.eatons.com/
Category: Shopping
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
One would think Eaton's, a very large Canadian department store chain, could find it's way to a decent Web site designer. The site is about as attractive as an employee breakroom, and loaded with features such as; text only fashion reports that are both dull and out of date, a shopping section that has maybe 50 items you *can't* order online, and a sleepy customer service section with little useful information. The next time you're traveling through Canada, be sure and check out the store finder, which lists locations and hours for each Eaton's.
Overall Rating: 13
The Democracy Page
URL: http://student.ecok.edu/~polsci/faculty/julrich/courses/democrcy.html
Category: Political
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
This site is a list of links to other sites related to the political process in America. The author starts with the links to important political documents, government agencies, and political science pages. Next you'll get links broken down by which amendment of the constitution they discuss. And finally more links, though this time on specific issues. The list is comprehensive, broad ranging, and well selected, but too bad there's no original content and the graphics are poor at best.
Overall Rating: 13
Official Guinness
URL: http://www.itl.net/guinness/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
This is a site no member of the cult of Guinness should miss. There are delightful treats to downloaded -- a Guinness screen saver and wall paper composed of your favorite Guinness advertisements. There's also a Guinness FAQ to answer your age-old stout questions. So open a can of pub-draught, pull up a chair, and step into the virtual pub.
Overall Rating: 13
AeroCrafter Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook
URL: http://www.hooked.net/baicorp/aerocrafter/
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Getting tired of billboards on the Web? Me, too. Especially when they are as mundane as this one. If you happen to own a copy of "The Aircraft Sourcebook," you will definitely want to check out the table of corrections to the text found at this site. Short of that, this page only tries to convince you to buy a copy of your field guide to the exciting world of airplane construction. If you do feel the urge to buy the book, I suggest you check out a copy in your local bookstore; you won't find much information about it here.
Overall Rating: 13
Welcome to HomeArts
URL: http://homearts.com/depts/fresh/newhome.htm
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
The Hearst Corporation delivers an on-line magazine created by excerpting some of it's most popular magazines: Redbook, Country Living, Popular Mechanics, and more. The zine features attractive, in-depth sections on food, health, relationships, and home and garden. Some of the highlights include a searchable recipe index, diet and exercise tips, a nationwide database of properties for sale, and of course the mandatory "is it love or lust" relationship quiz. An excellent site for anyone who feels the compulsion to reach for that copy of "Better Homes & Garden" in the checkout isle.
Overall Rating: 12
HomeArts
URL: http://homearts.com/depts/fresh/newhome.htm
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
The Hearst Corporation delivers an on-line magazine created by excerpting some of it's most popular magazines: Redbook, Country Living, Popular Mechanics, and more. The zine features attractive, in-depth sections on food, health, relationships, and home and garden. Some of the highlights include a searchable recipe index, diet and exercise tips, a nationwide database of properties for sale, and of course the mandatory "is it love or lust" relationship quiz. An excellent site for anyone who feels the compulsion to reach for that copy of "Better Homes & Garden" in the checkout isle.
Overall Rating: 12
OZ Interactive Inc
URL: http://www.oz.is/OZ-Interactive/Welcome.html
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
This company is a leader in computer graphics, an imaging company that seems very interested in VRML (Virtual Reality Markup Language). There's not a whole lot at this site yet, but it's very nice-looking and there are some interesting things coming. They have a VRML gallery already, and are working on a VR record store. The plans for it are laid-out, and are worth a look now if you're interested in Icelandic computer graphics. Definitely bookmark it for later reading; it could be a fascinating site, especially if you have a VRML reader.
Overall Rating: 10
Welcome to Macromedia
URL: http://www.macromedia.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
For people who use Macromedia products, this is a very good site. There's a good range of software and plug-ins for use with Macromedia products. There's also a wide range if items, such as industry gossip and demos, that would be of interest to multimedia aficionados. There isn't a great amount of depth to the material, but hopefully, it will fill in over time. Perhaps the coolest feature is the ability to download a file of bookmarks for the Macromedia site that you can import into your browser.
Overall Rating: 10
Alaska's Kenai Peninsula Resources
URL: http://www.ptialaska.net/~kenaipen/
Category: Travel
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
A man sits in a small room in Alaska. Having heard the Web is where it's at, and possessing a little techno-smartness, he decides the way to make his Alaskan fortune is to start a local business directory and charge business $15/month to be listed. Three months later few businesses have signed up and in desperation he pleads with them on his Web site, even trying to enlist the community for help. All to no avail, the Web has just not caught on with businesses in southern Alaska. So he sits at his computer, hoping the phone will ring. I hope it will too.
Overall Rating: 8
Corbis
URL: http://www.corbis.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Excellent. I could spend an entire day at this site, an enormous, well-organized archive of images, many available in high resolution. Especially worthwhile is the Almanac under the Corbis Media section. The Gallery Plan in the Gallery section is done so well I forgot it's useless. You can set up an account that somewhat personalizes your home page screen to account for your bandwidth and interests. The hi-res images are encrypted, so you have to download their viewer to access them. It always gives me a warm feeling to know that Bill Gates (founder of Corbis) is vigilantly protecting our copyright laws.
Overall Rating: 8
MCA UNIVERSAL CYBERWALK
URL: http://www.mca.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
In its usual fashion, MCA/Universal has given an impression of substance to almost non-existent content. I found myself spending 20 minutes trying to figure out the impressive-looking home video library, only to realize there were only images of videocassette covers surrounded by lots of useless buttons. The site does boast some movie clips and actual information about many of their books in the Putnam/Berkeley section, but the music and film sections are quite bare. Overall, you have to search through a lot of fluff to find a very moderate amount of substance.
Overall Rating: 8
Welcome to Bulldog
URL: http://bulldog.ca/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
This group is very fond of itself. There are some interesting pictures here, and the video is somewhat interesting, though it may take you an hour or more to download it. Overall, though, the site is quite dull and lacks much information. Want to take an extensive photo tour of their office? I didn't either. But I did find out that the CEO is a new media genius, wine expert, and gourmet cook. Who cares? I found myself saying that a lot.
Overall Rating: 8
GardenWeb
URL: http://www.gardenweb.com/
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Warning! Serious gardeners should stay away from this site: Once you visit you may become hooked, running up your ISP bills, and neglecting your garden. This excellent resource for the accomplished gardener includes such features as a seed exchange, interactive classified ads, and many well designed, and fairly active, forums covering a wide variety of plant types and gardening topics. The site is rounded off with great tips, a business directory, and a calendar of upcoming gardening events. It could be better organized, and may be a little advanced for the novice, but green thumbs will return again and again.
Overall Rating: 7
Inline Online Overview
URL: http://bird.taponline.com/inline/overview.html
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
The old four wheeled dinosaurs of our youth have long since been replaced by the modern adventure sport of inline skating. Browsing this site, you can feel the enthusiasm of the diehard fans that created it, packing it full of exciting, useful, and well organized pages for the inline enthusiast. Pictures galore, tips for all styles of skating, editorials, and gear info, all combine to hold your interest as you cruise the site. Kudos to the authors for a great job of making the site a forum, encouraging all to send in their tips, letters, and ideas to be included.
Overall Rating: 7
Microsoft Corporation
URL: http://www.microsoft.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
I was expecting quantity and quality from Microsoft's site. I got the former. There's an incredible amount of information here, all extremely well-organized. You can get an outline of the entire site, or more detailed outlines of parts of it. Alternately, the entire site can be searched with a good search engine. Perhaps best of all, Uncle Bill discourses on the office and school of the future. The graphics are pretty dull image maps, although the forms are cool and the pseudo pull-down menus in the support section are kind of interesting, though a bit silly.
Overall Rating: 7
Fun With Numbers The Home Page
URL: http://www.mind.net/xethyr/numbers/index.html
Category: Science
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Not Rated
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
This is one of those sites that remind me why I like the Web so much. Some math fan with an interest in writing C programs that calculate prime numbers, Pi, and other series that excite mathematicians decided to put the results on a page. To top if off, the guy has a really good sense of humor. He also has some useful items, such as all 100,000 digits of 2 to the 33,333 power, and fractional equivalents of Pi. Be sure and check out the author's home page.
Overall Rating: 7
Astral Projection Home Page
URL: http://www.lava.net/~goodin/astral.html
Category: Science
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
If you're into astral projection and lucid dreaming, tell your analyst this site may be a trove of useful information. The meat of the site is a searchable library of all the articles and pages on the Web relating to these topics. There's a a fairly extensive collection of articles and an interesting feedback form the author uses to collect data for future articles. There's also a place where readers can leave tips on how to improve your astral projection skills. The site lost marks from me because over half the navigation links did not work.
Overall Rating: 7
Mobil Corporation
URL: http://www.mobil.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
This site looks good, and offers some interesting material. There is a section on the Pegasus medal, an international literature award sponsored by Mobil. The only problem is that Mobil doesn't actually tell you anything about the books or authors that received the kudos. The site also offers a section that looks up your legislators, and helps you send them e-mail. You can also apply for credit cards, and buy Mobil racing merchandise. Be ready for a healthy load of propaganda, my personal favorite being pictures and commentary on "Mobil's New Fast and Easy Nozzles".
Overall Rating: 7
GardenWeb
URL: http://www.gardenweb.com/
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Warning! Serious gardeners should stay away from this site: Once you visit you may become hooked, running up your ISP bills, and neglecting your garden. This excellent resource for the accomplished gardener includes such features as a seed exchange, interactive classified ads, and many well designed, and fairly active, forums covering a wide variety of plant types and gardening topics. The site is rounded off with great tips, a business directory, and a calendar of upcoming gardening events. It could be better organized, and may be a little advanced for the novice, but green thumbs will return again and again.
Overall Rating: 7
Inline Online Overview
URL: http://bird.taponline.com/inline/overview.html
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
The old four wheeled dinosaurs of our youth have long since been replaced by the modern adventure sport of inline skating. Browsing this site, you can feel the enthusiasm of the diehard fans that created it, packing it full of exciting, useful, and well organized pages for the inline enthusiast. Pictures galore, tips for all styles of skating, editorials, and gear info, all combine to hold your interest as you cruise the site. Kudos to the authors for a great job of making the site a forum, encouraging all to send in their tips, letters, and ideas to be included.
Overall Rating: 7
The Puppetry Home Page
URL: http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~rosesage/puppetry/puppetry.html
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Puppetry is one of the worlds most venerable art forms, yet it is usually not considered 'serious' in this country--an impression this site goes to great lengths to change. Whether you are a serious puppeteer, or totally new to the art, there is an extensive amount of information on this well organized site to capture your interest. The site is arranged by types of puppetry and includes famous puppets and puppeteers, current puppet exhibits and touring companies, on-line resources, mail order supply houses, and much more to keep you interested. A must for any puppet fan!
Overall Rating: 6
Introduction to Linn's Stamp News
URL: http://www.best.com/~linns/
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Wow. I never would have guessed how deep some people can get into stamps; $16,675 for a Richard Nixon invert from 1995! Find exciting tales like this in Linn's Stamp News, a weekly magazine for the SERIOUS collector, and now a web site with some current news and resources of interest to avid collectors. The casual collector will probably be disappointed by the lack of a broad overview of stamp collecting. The site is attractive and well organized, but it seems more designed to lure you into buying their books or subscribing to their magazine than to inform about stamp collecting.
Overall Rating: 6
Turn Left
URL: http://falcon.cc.ukans.edu/~cubsfan/liberal.html
Category: Political
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
"Liberal" is a term that's bandied about a lot nowadays, but few know what it means. This site addresses this shortcoming by providing a solid introduction to Liberalism. The site also offers a large number of links to Democratic Party organizations and hundreds of other groups that set liberal philosophies to action. I can only criticize the message wall section: It desperately needs a decent visual interface, and is aesthetically boring.
Overall Rating: 6
GOP In-Fighting Update Series
URL: http://www.webcom.com/~albany/infight.html
Category: Political
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
The site is premised on the notion that the Religious Right is a minority with control of the Republican party. By highlighting the division and internal wranglings in short articles posted several times a week, the creator hopes to help rectify this situation. Those with an interest in the internal politics of the GOP will probably find it fascinating. Those more casually concerned with politics can glimpse what goes on behind-the-scenes in Congress. The site can be searched for text strings if you're interested in a particular Congress member or issue.
Overall Rating: 6
IMLAB
URL: http://imlab9.landarch.uiuc.edu/
Category: Science
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
IMLAB is the satellite imaging lab of the University of Illinois. The site gives a good general introduction to imaging and its benefits. It also goes into detail about many of the projects that the lab is currently involved with, from inner city revitalization to Asian reforestation projects. I found the site fascinating. The projects are interesting to read about and the images are impressive.
Overall Rating: 6
National Zoological Park Home Page
URL: http://www.si.edu/organiza/museums/zoo/homepage/nzphome.htm
Category: Science
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
This is an extremely well-done site. It is very much geared toward persons planning on taking a trip to the park. Included are maps of the zoo, schedules of activities, and a wealth of other information that would help plan a trip. There are also interesting behind-the-scenes articles that talk about the reality of managing a zoo and the ideals and goals of the zoo itself. You can currently FTP animal pictures, but hopefully they will put a full-blown zoo on the Web soon.
Overall Rating: 6
Home Page of VolcanoWorld
URL: http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/
Category: Science
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
This site is geared toward children and designed for classroom use. That didn't stop me from spending several hours searching through it. This site does a good job of giving enough information about volcanoes to keep readers interested without burying them in a sea of data. There are several good information and interactive sections (including 'Ask the Vulcanologist,' complete with FAQ). The site is searchable and has a good bit of volcano tourism info.
Overall Rating: 6
Welcome to Honda
URL: http://www.honda.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Honda seems to be very proud of its racing team. What would you expect from a company whose founder almost died in a racing accident? The racing section is quite good; fans won't want to miss it. Surprisingly, this site does not offer very in-depth info about Honda cars, and it isn't readily apparent how to access what is available. (Here's a tip: Click on the car images at the bottom of the Model line-up pages). Precise info on current lease terms and specials should be very helpful to those who care.
Overall Rating: 6
Electronic Town Hall Project
URL: http://www.emf.net/~cr/eth.html
Category: Political
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
The Electronic Town Hall Project is an Internet Relay Chat channel devoted to discussing the agenda of United We Stand America, the populist group led by Ross Perot that is trying to establish a third political party. This site intends to introduce newcomers to IRC in general, and the Project specifically. You'll find links to IRC-related articles, transcripts of Town Hall sessions, and info on Town Hall participants. If you're interested in this project, you'll find this to be a trove of information. However, it is not well-organzied, and you won't find any fancy graphics.
Overall Rating: 6
Votelink
URL: http://www.votelink.com/
Category: Political
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Sooner or later, it was bound to happen: Someone would develop a dedicated polling site for the Web. This site gives you the chance to vote on select issues of the day. How do *you* feel about primary elections in Arizona? What about the demise of "Calvin and Hobbes"? You can view voting results, as well as read and post comments. I found the interface quite confusing.
Overall Rating: 6
Political Theory on the Internet
URL: http://swift.eng.ox.ac.uk/jdr/index.html
Category: Political
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
This site is a collection of links to the major contributions of big-name political theorists. For each of the dozen or so theorists listed, you'll find a portrait, a discussion of the theorist's life and major ideas, and links to original works. There is also a page of links to political theory resources. While this site lacks extensive content, those with an interest in political theory may find this to be a great clearing house for information. You'll find complete texts, not excerpts.
Overall Rating: 6
Linn's Stamp News
URL: http://www.best.com/~linns/
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Wow. I never would have guessed how deep some people can get into stamps; $16,675 for a Richard Nixon invert from 1995! Find exciting tales like this in Linn's Stamp News, a weekly magazine for the SERIOUS collector, and now a web site with some current news and resources of interest to avid collectors. The casual collector will probably be disappointed by the lack of a broad overview of stamp collecting. The site is attractive and well organized, but it seems more designed to lure you into buying their books or subscribing to their magazine than to inform about stamp collecting.
Overall Rating: 6
Maine Sportsman's Guide Canoeing Kayaking
URL: http://www.maineguide.com/sportsmen/canoeing.html
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Few visions bring to mind relaxation like canoeing through the still lakes of Maine, listening to the loons as the sun appears over the horizon. If you have decided to pursue this vision, or it's white-water cousin, and would like to contact a professional guide service, this site could save you a mint on phone calls. If you are looking for general information on Canoeing or Kayaking in Maine you will be disappointed by it's general lack on this site--limited to some very appealing pictures and sketchy information on a few popular waterways.
Overall Rating: 5
Hiking and Walking Homepage
URL: http://www.teleport.com/~walking/hiking.html
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Walking seems to have become Americans favorite pastime, and this is a great place to get in on the excitement. Whether you are just starting to walk for exercise, or are a serious hiker, you will be intrigued by this site. It feels a little thrown together, but it is loaded with great information on regional and national walking clubs, hiking publications and events, articles on many aspects of walking and nature philosophy, and excellent sources for self-propelled vacations. If you your idea of relaxation and fitness is miles of open trail, don't miss this site.
Overall Rating: 5
The IBM world wide web home page
URL: http://www.ibm.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
This is kind of your standard corporate page. The support section is very extensive. The IBM plugs are ever-present. The Stretch (just for fun) section is surprisingly good. They have also done a very nice job of integrating their "Solutions for a Small Planet" campaign with the Web. There's not much reason to go here unless you just happen to be a Big Blue developer or fan (does IBM have fans?), but it's a very solid site.
Overall Rating: 5
PeaceNet Home Page
URL: http://www.igc.apc.org/peacenet/
Category: Political
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
This is probably the most comprehensive list of peace and justice issues on the Web. Typical of IGC, the site contains an exhaustive collection of links to sites that promote anything from African-American rights to voting issues. Unfortunately, it doesn't go much beyond a list of links. There's a special feature of the week, which looks fairly in depth at an issue, but if you're looking for information, you most likely will not find it on this site. What you will find is a link to it.
Overall Rating: 5
Amnesty International On-line
URL: http://www.io.org/amnesty/overview.html
Category: Political
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Amnesty International has led in fighting human rights violations for decades. It's been so successful because it makes it easy for people to advocate for freeing prisoners. Now it's brought the same information to the Web, and made it even easier for us to help. The site lists hundreds of Urgent Action notices and studies of prisoners of conscience, and allows you to write your letters by e-mail. It also contains a huge collection of human rights records and trends in particular countries. This site makes it so easy to participate that you really have no excuse not to.
Overall Rating: 5
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
URL: http://www.envirolink.org:80/orgs/seashep/index.html
Category: Political
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
The hardest-hitting, most radical environmental group on the high-seas now comes to the Web. It's always enjoyable to read about the Sea Shepherds humiliating and devastating the eco-villains of the world. If you have never heard of this controversial group, check this site out. The group swears by nonviolent confrontation. Its Web page is well-designed, and it's the first one I've run across that uses frames. Be sure and read the captains logs. I found a significant number of small technical problems with the site, but they should be fixed by the time you read this.
Overall Rating: 5
Southern Forest Nursery Management Cooperative
URL: http://sofserv.forestry.auburn.edu/coops/sfnmc/sfnmc.html
Category: Science
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
This a site with extremely limited appeal. I'm sure those of you who are professional foresters will find it fascinating. The rest of us will be less than dazzled. The high point for me was the collection of Pesticide Information Profiles, which informs about the acute toxicity of the hundreds of chemicals served to us on our food. Click on over to the Methyl Bromide section to ponder deep forestry philosophy questions such as, "Is soil fumigation with methyl bromide consistent with ecologically sound principles?" The site does have a lot of good information for those who are serious about silviculture.
Overall Rating: 5
THE ULTIMATE UFO PAGE
URL: http://www.serve.com/tufop/
Category: Science
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
UFO mania (or is it awareness?) has reached an all-time high. This site appears to be an attempt to capitalize on this to sell books. The site features several articles, most of which are links to other sites, and a few pictures. Links to only 15 other UFO sites are provided, surprising considering the deep interest in this subject on the Web. The design is good and if the page were greatly expanded, it would be an excellent site. Perhaps we should all send in our abduction experiences to be added to the site.
Overall Rating: 5
Rob's Granite Page
URL: http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rmr/
Category: Science
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
There's something charming about a guy fixated on granite. This page has everything you ever wanted to know about one of our most common rocks. A lot of it are technical research papers that were way over my head. Any serious geology buff, especially one who's into granite, will probably enjoy this site. Also, for those of you who live in Texas, there's an excellent section on the Llano Uplift written at a lay level. There's also a comprehensive set of links to the granite research community.
Overall Rating: 5
JC Penney
URL: http://www.jcpenney.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
I expected a dull page from an institution as venerable as J.C. Penny. I was not disappointed. This site is kind of like a Penny catalog with a scant few items, bad pictures, and no order form. The pictures are pathetic. One was so low-res, I couldn't even discern the item in question. This site would be useful if you could actually order items. I suspect this complaint will be addressed as soon as Web commerce becomes more widely accepted. But for now the site is disappointing.
Overall Rating: 5
Welcome to Texaco Online
URL: http://www.texaco.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
How do you make petroleum exciting? Texaco apparently doesn't have an answer. This is essentially a typical corporate Web page: short history of the company, abbreviated shareholder report, the mandatory "we are so environmentally aware" section... You get the idea. The site's high point is definitely the auto racing section, which includes daily reports, schedules, pictures, driver bios, and other racing info. Texaco racing fans will love it. There is also a nifty little 10-page document that will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about oil. A must read for home mechanic types.
Overall Rating: 5
The Saturn Site
URL: http://www.saturncars.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
The folks at Saturn have worked hard to develop a homey kind of image. Their web sight manages to continue this tradition quite well. There is a lot of info about each car in the Saturn line, including fairly detailed technical specs. The site also has a good section detailing the Rails to Trails project, and information about the Saturn bike team. Perhaps my favorite feature was the database (support group?) of Saturn owners, which the company claims will soon be extended to allow customers to communicate with each other directly.
Overall Rating: 5
Dole Watch
URL: http://users.aol.com/dolewatch1/private/page1.htm
Category: Political
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
As the presidential election approaches, those with an active interest in the contest will be looking for ammunition to support their man. This page offers plenty of irreverent firepower for the anti-Bob Dole camp. In fact, anybody interested in Dole, liberal or conservative, would probably find this site interesting. There is not a huge amount of material here, but I suspect the site will grow rapidly as the presidential race heats up.
Overall Rating: 5
Maine Sportsman's Guide Canoeing Kayaking
URL: http://www.maineguide.com/sportsmen/canoeing.html
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Few visions bring to mind relaxation like canoeing through the still lakes of Maine, listening to the loons as the sun appears over the horizon. If you have decided to pursue this vision, or it's white-water cousin, and would like to contact a professional guide service, this site could save you a mint on phone calls. If you are looking for general information on Canoeing or Kayaking in Maine you will be disappointed by it's general lack on this site--limited to some very appealing pictures and sketchy information on a few popular waterways.
Overall Rating: 5
Hiking and Walking Homepage
URL: http://www.teleport.com/~walking/hiking.html
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Walking seems to have become Americans favorite pastime, and this is a great place to get in on the excitement. Whether you are just starting to walk for exercise, or are a serious hiker, you'll be intrigued. It feels a little thrown together at first, but it is loaded with great information on regional and national walking clubs, hiking publications and events, articles on many aspects of walking and nature philosophy, and excellent sources for self-propelled vacations. If you your idea of relaxation and fitness is miles of open trail, don't miss this site.
Overall Rating: 5
Apple Computer
URL: http://www.apple.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
I'm a big Apple fan, so I expected a lot from this site. I found it had very solid, in-depth information about Apple and its programs. But after looking around for an hour, I felt something was missing. Style. The site is just plain dry. True, there's a good support section, lots of ra-ra Apple info, and a nice special exhibit containing excellent pictures and extensive annotation. Don't miss the "Open Doc" section in the technologies and research area; if you have the time and bandwidth, download the example. But all of this needs to be better presented.
Overall Rating: 4
Earth First ! Journal
URL: http://envirolink.org/orgs/ef/
Category: Political
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
I imagine the Internet presents Earth First! with quite a dilemma. The environmental group's Luddite members probably have a hard time with their online presence. Then again, the Web does offer certain advantages over traditional means of communication, especially for a group with such a strong do-it-yourself philosophy. Perhaps the group compromised by posting the Earth First! journal in a text-only format -- much better than reading it on dead trees. If you're into radical environmentalism EF! style, the site is probably worth a read. It may not hold much appeal for others.
Overall Rating: 4
Search the Light Holography
URL: http://www.holo.com/search/search.html
Category: Science
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
This is an advertisement for a book you're supposed to get excited about and buy. It did not work for me. The site does feature a whopping one photo of a hologram by one artist. There's a list of holographic artists and one of their works, which may be of interest to those with a newfound interest in holography. The site's creators also have mastered the art of having lots of pages with lots of text while saying nothing. Pretty much the site is just bizarre.
Overall Rating: 4
Volkswagen
URL: http://www.volkswagen.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Volkswagen has always prided itself on being eclectic when compared to other car manufactuers. Its web site continues this tradition. The opening page is composed of a series of intentionally vague image maps. You're supposed to just click around and check things out. Eventually you'll find press releases, a Volkswagen museum, the current line of cars, and several other goodies (including a strange Jerry Garcia tribute). Volkswagen fans will love this site -- except those using a low bandwidth, who will hate the large file sizes.
Overall Rating: 4
Penguin USA Home Page
URL: http://www.penguin.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
This place is kind of bare, but it looks like a good beginning. The site seems to be designed well. There is already info, some of it quite in depth, on new releases. There is also a pretty good list of book links. If you are a teacher or librarian make sure and check out the section on academic books, like the rest of the site there is not a whole lot there, but they are going in a good direction. If you are a book lover, keep an eye on Penguin, it may develop into a very good site.
Overall Rating: 4
AeroCrafter Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook
URL: http://www.hooked.net/baicorp/aerocrafter/
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
I am beginning to get tired of billboards on the Web, especially when they are as mundane as this one. If you happen to own a copy of 'The Aircraft Sourcebook' you will definitely want to check out the table of corrections to the text found at this site. Short of that the site only tries to convince you to buy a copy of your field guide to the exciting world of airplane construction. If you do feel the urge to buy the book, I suggest you check out a copy in your local bookstore; you will not find much information about it on this site.
Overall Rating: 3
The House Boating Page
URL: http://www.inforamp.net/~morris/
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
I always have to wonder whether sites like this are a crackpot scheme to make money, or if someone out there really is that obsessed with propagating the houseboat as the great American recreational vehicle. Call me a cynic, but I suspect the former. If you are planning a house boating vacation you may want to check out the houseboat rental locator, and the avid houseboat enthusiast may find the small collection of links interesting, otherwise there is not anything on this site to warrant a visit.
Overall Rating: 3
Amiga Technologies Homepage
URL: http://www.AMIGA.de/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
They still make Amigas? That' about all I learned here. It doesn't get any more basic than this. No fancy graphics, not much text, few links (not that there are a lot of other Amiga sites to link to). Some parts are only in German, but I doubt non-speakers are missing much. I did learn that the Amiga "is the first choice of graphics professionals." Yeah, sure. If you're an Amiga fan or owner, you probably don't have a lot of sites to choose from, but for the other 99.9 percent of the population, stay away.
Overall Rating: 3
Merrill Lynch
URL: http://www.ml.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
Merrill Lynch has fallen into the trap of thinking that having a Web site is enough; if you build it, they will come. This site could have been developed as a great resource to investors and planners. Instead, the homepage has lots of investment buzz words linked to a 250-word statistics-laden info sheet that, in turn, is linked to a form for visitors to fill out. Merrill Lynch uses the info from the form to s-mail glossy advertisements. If you're looking for Merrill Lynch brochures, this is the place for you. For anything else, look elsewhere.
Overall Rating: 3
Holt Labor Library
URL: http://infopark.newcollege.edu:80/holt/
Category: Political
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
This page is fairly devoid of information. It states, in a cursory manner, what the Hold Labor Library is and how to get there. For those of us who do not live in San Francisco, there isn't a lot here. The exception is the fairly large and well-annotated list of labor videos for borrow. This would be a very useful site for labor activists if the library would get more of its collection on the Web (and get a good Webmaster). It would definitely be worth checking back to see if the site grows.
Overall Rating: 3
The House Boating Page
URL: http://www.inforamp.net/~morris/
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Brian Bearden
I always have to wonder whether sites like this are a crackpot scheme to make money, or if someone out there really is that obsessed with propagating the houseboat as the great American recreational vehicle. Call me a cynic, but I suspect the former. If you are planning a house boating vacation you may want to check out the houseboat rental locator, and the avid houseboat enthusiast may find the small collection of links interesting, otherwise there is not anything on this site to warrant a visit.
Overall Rating: 3
Art Cars
URL: http://www.artcars.com/home.html
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
Art Cars. You've probably seen one or two; a VW bug done up to resemble a giant pumpkin, an old Dodge Dart covered with buttons and lights and whirligigs, an unidentified chassis supporting a giant plastic shark. Anyway, this is the fan zine for them. Tons of pictures, info on specific cars, events and more. Tres Cool.
Overall Rating: 18
CraftWeb Project
URL: http://www.craftweb.com/
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
The ultimate arts and craft site on the Web, it's fast, filled with resources, and there's a ton of stuff to see and buy. For artisans themselves, there are lots of links to resources, books, help, etc, as well as chance (for a fee) to display your own work. If you're a craftsperson looking for a cheap way to get your wares on the web, this is probably it. They get upwards of 6,000 visitors a day, which is awesome for such a specialty site. A little commercial, but overall, great.
Overall Rating: 18
Hyperactive2.0
URL: http://hyperactive.com/games/index2.html
Category: Gaming
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
This is an excellent game site. Not only is it well designed (assuming you like frames and constantly refreshing ads), but there is a lot of content here. There are codes, downloadable demos, tons of screenshots, reviews, some cools links, a letters sections, and news. It covers both PC and consoles, and the news section is remarkably complete -- they don't break news stories often, but they do have a wide variety of stories. The writing is well done, and (surprise!) free of grammar errors. Plus there are servers in Australia and the US. (the site is of Australian origin).
Overall Rating: 18
Roger Wilco's Virtual Broomcloset
URL: http://www.wiw.org/~jess/roger.html
Category: Gaming
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
If you're reading this because you're trying to figure out how to transfer your infommercial to HTML, please go on to the next review. If, on the other hand, you want to see what the web can really offer, read on. For me, this site is what the Web is all about. Basically it's a fan site dedicated to the Space Quest series of games from Sierra and the games' star Roger Willco. It's got FAQs, walk-throughs, spoilers, and other expected stuff, but what is really cool are the fake newspaper articles and things that come from within the Space Quest universe. Words can't even begin to describe what an excellent experience this site is. Go there now.
Overall Rating: 18
Cat Fanciers
URL: http://www.fanciers.com/
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
Cats love me. Every time I come into the room, they purr and rub up against me. Of course, I hate cats. But I liked this site. Since 1993, this page has been providing ailurophiles (cat lovers) with an exhaustive amount of information on every aspect of feline-fancying, from breed descriptions, to general info (a big section with about 200 entries), cat shows, info on shelters, veterinary medicine and tons more. If you like cats, come here; it's that simple.
Overall Rating: 17
R/C Pilot's Lounge
URL: http://www.ntrnet.net/~dwright/
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
This site is well maintained, or at least it was before the web master got married, (the site is in stasis during the honeymoon). Geared for radio-controlled plane fanatics, it has a guest book, plenty of pictures of models (some with specs) as well as a wealth of other R/C links.
Overall Rating: 17
Pop Rocket
URL: http://www.poprocket.com/
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
Pop Rocket, known for their CD game, Total Distortion, has hit the Web with a vengeance. Featured is info on their game, as well as several Shockwave-based arcade-style games that come from -- or are at least inspired by -- Total Distortion. These guys know Director better than almost anyone on the planet, and this site is largely a technology demonstration for their new business, building Shockwave games and interactive ads for web sites. Anyway, it's kind of fun. 3,2,3
Overall Rating: 17
The Riddler
URL: http://www.riddler.com/
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
No fanzine style here -- this is a 100% corporate sponsored trivia and word gaming site. You watch ads, win virtual "caps" which you can later trade for prizes -- everything from Snapple stuff and Riddler mouse-pads to a Toyota 4X4. The puzzles are pretty fun (some Java, some not), and the site is slickly designed, (and the games are pretty fun), but I found that the service ran a little too slow, and I got sick of all the ads. Still, it's fun to collect and trade the caps, even though you know you'll never beat the geeks who live on this site, winning everything.
Overall Rating: 17
I.C.E.
URL: http://www.iiinc.com/ice/
Category: Gaming
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
With all the talk about the big companies starting to get into the online, multiplayer game area (ie: TEN, Mpath/XBand, ENgage, even-- gasp!--Microsoft), people often lose sight of the fact that it's the little guys--the die hard gamers--that have driven the market to this point, and many of them are not interested in the dumbing down of online multiplayer gaming that will occur as it goes mainstream. For them, there are sites like I.C.E. It's a local (Baltimore area) server that offers a server for playing WarCraft II, Descent, Doom, and Terminal Velocity. There are also tips and hints, personal pages for members, a newsletter and more. Well worth checking out, even if you're long distance.
Overall Rating: 17
Utopia Technologies
URL: http://www.utopiatech.com/
Category: Gaming
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
Now this game developer is pretty cool. Utopia is one of the first totally virtual companies we've seen. Everyone works out of their house, meets on IRC to chat about the state of the company once per week, and was recruited over UseNet. It's like a net success story, or will be, once Montezuma's Return (their 3D light-sourced Quakelike game) is released successfully. The site itself provides some nice info about the game (according to our sister publication PC Gamer, these guys have a killer 3D engine on their hands), about the company, and like all good personal sites (this is the most personal company I've seen), provides links and more. Check it out.
Overall Rating: 17
Casady & Greene
URL: http://205.179.133.2/C&G/Welcome.html
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
Casady & Greene are among the last of "Mac-only" developers. Their stuff is known for high quality, great value and excellent functionality, and their web-site features this same quality. It's well organized, looks great, has a perfect mix of art to content, and features the fascinating home page of John Calhoun, one of the best Mac programmers around. Even if you have a PC and can't download one of the fully operative demos of Casady & Greene's software, you should check this out to see the way a corporate web page should be done. Awesome. ***blue light
Overall Rating: 16
War and Strategy Games
URL: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/POde/
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
This is the business. If you care at all about war games and strategy games, from a passing interest in Command & Conquer to a dedication to old-school strategy board games, you should already know about this site. The webmaster is obviously dedicated beyond all expectation, and this site includes daily updates and more content than you could possibly digest at one sitting. It's all done with a minimum of graphics to keep things fast, too. Overall, the keywords for this site are information and enthusiasm, both of which are in abundant quantities.
Overall Rating: 16
Hank's News
URL: http://www.happypuppy.com/hleukart/news.html
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
Hank's news is a page devoted to providing links to hot new shareware demo's of PC games, along with some extremely short commentary by Hank himself (sometimes original, sometimes lifted from some other source). It's a great one-stop shopping site for someone who just picked up their PC and is looking to load up on the latest shareware masterpieces. Doom freaks should also check out Hank's homepage; he is the author of the "official" Doom FAQ v6.66 as well as a book on hacking Doom. ***blue light
Overall Rating: 16
The Duke Nukem 3D Arsenal
URL: http://rat.org/duke3d/
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
FAQ's, codes, links and maps for the hottest new Doom-esque multi-player game. There's a chat room too. Cool.
Overall Rating: 16
The McCannical Pinball Page
URL: http://pilot.msu.edu/user/mccannr1/pinball/
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
Yowza. This is the most complete pinball site I have ever seen, with plenty of FAQs, tip sheets, rule cards for various games, links to other sites and a bunch more. If you like pinball, you'll dig this site. That noted, if you're looking for hip, hi-tech web sites, this isn't one of them. It has only a modicum of graphics and is mostly text. Some scans of promo sell sheets, etc., would have been cool. Oh well. This is rad just for the info.
Overall Rating: 16
The Track
URL: http://www.boston.com/sports/thetrack/cgi-bin/horse_race.cgi
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
If this is the future of online games, we're in trouble... As a fun element of the Boston Globe's online boston.com domain, you get to pick a horse (they've got cool names like C++ Biscuit and Man-O-WAIS), bet some money, and see if it wins in an animated race. As a technology demo, it's cool (the animation was pretty smooth, even at 28.8); as a diversion it's fun a couple of times, mainly because of the horse names. As a game it's perfectly dismal, but enough fun to check out once.
Overall Rating: 16
Casady & Greene
URL: http://205.179.133.2/C&G/Welcome.html
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
Casady & Greene are among the last of "Mac-only" developers. Their stuff is known for high quality, great value and excellent functionality, and their web-site features this same quality. It's well organized, looks great, has a perfect mix of art to content, and features the fascinating home page of John Calhoun, one of the best Mac programmers around. Even if you have a PC and can't download one of the fully operative demos of Casady & Greene's software, you should check this out to see the way a corporate web page should be done. Awesome. ***blue light
Overall Rating: 16
War and Strategy Games
URL: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/POde/
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
This is the business. If you care at all about war games and strategy games, from a passing interest in Command & Conquer to a dedication to old-school strategy board games, you should already know about this site. The webmaster is obviously dedicated beyond all expectation, and this site includes daily updates and more content than you could possibly digest at one sitting. It's all done with a minimum of graphics to keep things fast, too. Overall, the keywords for this site are information and enthusiasm, both of which are in abundant quantities.
Overall Rating: 16
Hank's News
URL: http://www.happypuppy.com/hleukart/news.html
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
Hank's news is a page devoted to providing links to hot new shareware demo's of PC games, along with some extremely short commentary by Hank himself (sometimes original, sometimes lifted from some other source). It's a great one-stop shopping site for someone who just picked up their PC and is looking to load up on the latest shareware masterpieces. Doom freaks should also check out Hank's homepage; he is the author of the "official" Doom FAQ v6.66 as well as a book on hacking Doom. ***blue light
Overall Rating: 16
Happy Puppy Game Downloads
URL: http://www.happypuppy.com/
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
It may be ugly, but if you're looking for a jam-packed site filled with forums, cheats, downloads, reviews, and the latest info on games, this is, as they themselves say, the number one spot for PC games on the Web. Run by a group of old-school gamers, this is a site for people who remember the way PC gaming used to be -- not a lot of hipster flash, but plenty of meaty content. Plus, it's called Happy Puppy. What more do you want?
Overall Rating: 16
Throttle
URL: http://members.aol.com/blackgate/index.html
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
This is a web-mag for fans of traditional pen, paper and dice role-playing games, done by the proprietors of Black Gate Publishing, whose flagship product is a game that seems loosely based on the Immortals of the movie Highlander. Along with a dash of Libertarian philosophy for good measure (complete with link), there are also articles on the 36 types of plots for RPGs, the role of the woman adventurer, English titles in the 18th and 19th centuries, game reviews, links to company web-sites, and lots more stuff that will be of interest to the serious RPG fan.
Overall Rating: 16
LucasArts Entertainment Company
URL: http://www.lucasarts.com/
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
The LucasArts web pages are a lot like the games the George Lucas multimedia empire produces -- exceptionally well done technically, but lacking, sometimes, in any kind of spirit. Anyway, what you've got here is about exactly what you'd expect: screen shots; downloadable demos; a catalog of available merchandise; a tech support section with trouble shooting guides and an online recruitment section. I don't know, maybe I'm just tired of licensed Star Wars games, but I found this web site profoundly unmoving. If you want to know everything about the latest LucasArts games, come here. If you're looking for something soul-enhancing, something like THE FORCE, maybe, look elsewhere.
Overall Rating: 15
Mac Flight Simulators
URL: http://www.xmission.com:80/~morrison/MFS/
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
Tom Morrison has collected an extensive collection of links to every Mac Flight simulator site on the Internet (as far as we can tell), from Graphic Simulatons to someone who has a Mercury space mission simulator. He also has news and gossip (current and archived) about Mac flight sims and links to several FTP sites and the Flight Simulator FAQ. A great one-stop directory for anyone who wants to play pilot on the Mac. Not super deep, not super ornate, but very complete -- you'll get what you want quick.
Overall Rating: 15
The Cheats Page
URL: http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~cjm2/cheat/cheat.html
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
This is a very small site with lists of cheats for about eight different PC games. Not bad, but not much that couldn't be found elsewhere. There are also some links to other sites. From Chris's homepage there are more links, including one to Games Domain, which is cool. I don't know why, but for the Doom cheats, he thought white text on a light gray background was a good idea. To be fair, the page is under construction, so it may be worth another look by the time you read this.
Overall Rating: 15
Warlords II Players
URL: http://www.princeton.edu/~rfheeter/w2home.html
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
As mentioned in the Warlords II FAQ, this is thee site on the Internet for Warlords II players, Mac and PC. Warlords II being, of course, the cult favorite strategy game from SSG. The site is basically a very long nap-on-the-scroll-bar page with a ton of links to places with more storage space for scenario archives and listings of people wanting to play Warlords II via e-mail. If you like the game, you'll like the site. It's well organized and complete.
Overall Rating: 15
Killer Instinct 2 by ICE
URL: http://www.mindspring.com/~luisp/ki2/index2.html
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
Addicted to Ninetndo/Rare's 2D arcade fighting game? Think Killer Instinct is the ultimate quarter snatcher? Then you'll do well checking out this page, which has all the fighting moves, combos, fatalities, humiliations, etc. for every character in the game, as well as general info about the game. So in-depth, it's a little frightening.
Overall Rating: 15
King Link & Games
URL: http://www.whiterock.com/kinglink/
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
This site is wicked confusing, slow, and hard to navigate. That said, it does have an extensive mirrored library of easily searchable games (with descriptions) for many systems as well as links to just about every search engine on the Internet. So, I guess its worth checking out, just be prepared for a little confusion at the outset. What ever happened to "about [this site]" pages??
Overall Rating: 15
Staceyjoy's Knitting
URL: http://www.tiac.net/users/stacey/
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
What better place to look for knitting patterns than on the web, right? Where else could you find patterns co-mingling with quotes from Wired? Anyway, this good natured, net-savvy, semi-folksy site has plenty of modern and antique patterns (including one for socks and another for a chihuahua sweater), some stuff on cables, and a few words on technique. Its a fun, well written site. The personal info is almost as exciting -- to me, anyway -- as the knitting stuff.
Overall Rating: 15
Barbies: The Dolls, the Dish and the Dollars
URL: http://www.servtech.com/public/pippa/barbie
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
Wow, tons of Barbie stuff, with lists of which Barbie's the web master owns, links to other Barbie pages, Barbie news and a complete Barbie price guide. If you like Barbie -- especially if you like your Barbie with a touch of camp -- you'll probably dig this. For me, this was like a trip to a precious, pink, plastic hell. To me Barbie is evil incarnate, responsible for giving young girls image complexes, as well as reinforcing wretched gender stereotypes. To each his own, I guess.
Overall Rating: 15
Airship
URL: http://spot.colorado.edu/~dziadeck/airship.html
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
This site, and it's sister, Zeppelin, are dedicated to blimps, balloons, derigibles, and zeppelins. Largely, the site contains lists -- either pointers to other sites or extensive bibliographies. There is also some news on new developments, some photos, a modicum of background info on specific subjects, like the posters used to advertise transatlantic zeppelin flights. A good place to start learning about these wonderful aircraft.
Overall Rating: 15
FireWalking
URL: http://heartfire.com/firewalk/homefire.html
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
I knew firewalking was surrounded by weird, new age hocus-pocus, but I never realized to what extent. If you view firewalking as the way to change the world, though, or at least redefine yourself, check it out. If you think firewalking could be kind of cool, but aren't sure, go here first. To the site's credit, they print the skeptic's view as well as the enthusiasts. You can judge for yourself.
Overall Rating: 15
Bearly a Page
URL: http://www.aa.net/~urizen/bears2.html
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
I'll say. Teddy Bears. Sweet, cloying, cute teddy bears. Pictures of Teddy Bears. Pictures of paintings of Teddy Bears. Links to other Teddy Bear sites. Quotes relating to Teddy Bears. Stories about Teddy bears. It's Teddy Bear mania, an experience sort of like sticking your head in a giant vat filled with honey. Frightening, but still somehow kinda cool.
Overall Rating: 15
LucasArts Entertainment Company
URL: http://www.lucasarts.com/
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
The LucasArts web pages are a lot like the games the George Lucas multimedia empire produces -- exceptionally well done technically, but lacking, sometimes, in any kind of spirit. Anyway, what you've got here is about exactly what you'd expect: screen shots; downloadable demos; a catalog of available merchandise; a tech support section with trouble shooting guides and an online recruitment section. I don't know, maybe I'm just tired of licensed Star Wars games, but I found this web site profoundly unmoving. If you want to know everything about the latest LucasArts games, come here. If you're looking for something soul-enhancing, something like THE FORCE, maybe, look elsewhere.
Overall Rating: 15
Mac Flight Simulators
URL: http://www.xmission.com:80/~morrison/MFS/
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
Tom Morrison has collected an extensive collection of links to every Mac Flight simulator site on the Internet (as far as we can tell), from Graphic Simulatons to someone who has a Mercury space mission simulator. He also has news and gossip (current and archived) about Mac flight sims and links to several FTP sites and the Flight Simulator FAQ. A great one-stop directory for anyone who wants to play pilot on the Mac. Not super deep, not super ornate, but very complete -- you'll get what you want quick.
Overall Rating: 15
The Cheats Page
URL: http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~cjm2/cheat/cheat.html
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
This is a very small site with lists of cheats for about eight different PC games. Not bad, but not much that couldn't be found elsewhere. There are also some links to other sites. From Chris's homepage there are more links, including one to Games Domain, which is cool. I don't know why, but for the Doom cheats, he thought white text on a light gray background was a good idea. To be fair, the page is under construction, so it may be worth another look by the time you read this.
Overall Rating: 15
Warlords II Players
URL: http://www.princeton.edu/~rfheeter/w2home.html
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
As mentioned in the Warlords II FAQ, this is thee site on the Internet for Warlords II players, Mac and PC. Warlords II being, of course, the cult favorite strategy game from SSG. The site is basically a very long nap-on-the-scroll-bar page with a ton of links to places with more storage space for scenario archives and listings of people wanting to play Warlords II via e-mail. If you like the game, you'll like the site. It's well organized and complete.
Overall Rating: 15
The Electric Playground
URL: http://www.elecplay.com/
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
This online magazine features news and reviews on console games (like the PlayStation and Saturn) as well as PC info. The site is well laid out, but not updated as frequently as some others, like Happy Puppy, Next Generation Online, or Game Spot, to name a few. Still, for an enthusiastic view of the industry, as well as the occasional hot preview (they jump on some things that a lot of people miss), this is a worthy addition to your bookmark list.
Overall Rating: 15
This is X Band!
URL: http://www.xband.com
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
Interested in the X Band dedicated gaming service, for PC games, or the X Band multiplayer gaming service for 16-bit console games like the Sega Genesis or Super Nintendo? This site gives you the skinny. X Band PC isn't up and running yet, but it should be by the time you read this, at least in Beta. Plus, they have a spiffy graphic design sense. Worth a quick visit on that basis alone.
Overall Rating: 15
The Gamer's Ledge
URL: http://www.gamepen.com/ledge/
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
Although there is some info here on cheats for games, and a little bit of news, and some nice links, the real emphasis here is on reviews, and, more importantly, demos. There is almost a CD-full (over 500 MB) of PC downloads available at this site, and that alone makes it a good one-stop shopping spot for gamers with a fast connection and a desire to play the latest games.
Overall Rating: 15
Gamer's Zone
URL: http://www.worldvillage.com/wv/gamezone/html/gamezone.htm
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
Part of the World Village, "a virtual community focused on the home computing experience," it has game reviews, features, a site-of-the-day page, live chat and downloads. You can also play non-Java games, including a 3-D maze game and the old "dots" game we used to waste time on in high school. Although the site of the day is up-to-date, not much else is. That's unfortunate, as the infrastructure here looks solid. Most of the reviews are old, with only a few features. Similarly, the downloads are not the hottest commercial demos, but straight shareware. In a sense, you know, that's kind of refreshing. Ultimately, however, while the games are nice technology demos, even on a T1 connection they're too slow to be playable.
Overall Rating: 15
Legacy Software
URL: http://www.legacysoft.com/
Category: Gaming
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
You know those sites you run across sometimes that have no real reason for existence except for the fact that someone at the company obviously said "damn, we need a Web site?" Well, this is one of those. Ok, maybe its not *that* bad. Legacy is an LA-based edutainment software house, that just completed it's IPO, has a hot new title out, Emergency Room (first in a series of real-world job titles), and they're even hiring. How do I know this? Because even though their site interests me about zero percent, it is well laid out and provides a wealth of info on the company.
Overall Rating: 15
Bridge on the Web
URL: http://www.cs.vu.nl/~sater/bridge/bridge-on-the-web.html
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
Hmmm... Bridge... played around the world... by... well, by a lot of people, even if you and I don't know any. And this is their site. Many of the documents here are in PostScript, so you'll need a reader (they provide a link to a PC one, but no Mac), but aside from that, this appears to be a very complete accomplishment, with lots of links to PC bridge game sites, info about tournaments, etc. It's pretty plain looking, but has plenty of information that will no doubt be of interest to Bridge players worldwide.
Overall Rating: 14
The Ultimate MultiPlayer Game Page
URL: http://www.aros.net/~orme/multi.html
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
Very much under construction when I visited, this page has links to popular online game services as well as pages about popular multi-player games, like War Craft II, Command and Conquer, Descent II, Duke Nukem 3D, etc. The pages themselves have a skitch of info and plenty of links to more. Looks promising, but it has a long way to go.
Overall Rating: 14
Bridge on the Web
URL: http://www.cs.vu.nl/~sater/bridge/bridge-on-the-web.html
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
Hmmm... Bridge... played around the world... by... well, by a lot of people, even if you and I don't know any. And this is their site. Many of the documents here are in PostScript, so you'll need a reader (they provide a link to a PC one, but no Mac), but aside from that, this appears to be a very complete accomplishment, with lots of links to PC bridge game sites, info about tournaments, etc. It's pretty plain looking, but has plenty of information that will no doubt be of interest to Bridge players worldwide.
Overall Rating: 14
The Cheater's Guild
URL: http://www.inetport.com/~kenb/cg.htm
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
A nifty little fan-page, it gives you a list of hundreds of PC titles, with detailed codes for each one. One purpose, simple layout, well-executed. There are also some postings from readers, a game-of-the-month, book-of-the-month, cheat-of-the-month and dirty trick-of-the-month, as well as a couple of downloadable PC utilities of the naughty fun variety. The layout leaves a little to be desired, but hey, the editor just got married, so I guess we can cut him some slack.
Overall Rating: 14
American Gaming Network
URL: http://www.betnet.com/
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
Very much a site "under construction," this site is maintained by a company that runs high stakes mega-bingo games at Indian Reservations across the country. Like the idea of quasi-legal gambling over the web? Watch this space.
Overall Rating: 13
Games Galore
URL: http://www.mindspring.com/~krause/gg/gg.html
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
Did you ever see a site so outdated, you wondered if the person who created it died or something? That's this. If you're looking for a sparse amount of info on console systems (like the PlayStation) that's only just over a year out of date, combined with a paltry collection of links and some horrible fawning reviews, look here. Oh yeah, there are also huge graphics to download of exciting images like floppy disks and Sony battery changers. I'm convinced whoever did this site did it just to try and leech some software from big companies... "uh, yeah, I got a Web zine, send me some games, OK?" Stay away, this blows. ** RED LIGHT! THIS SUCKS!
Overall Rating: 12
Games Galore
URL: http://www.mindspring.com/~krause/gg/gg.html
Category: Gaming
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Chris Charla
Did you ever see a site so outdated, you wondered if the person who created it died or something? That's this. If you're looking for a sparse amount of info on console systems (like the PlayStation) that's only just over a year out of date, combined with a paltry collection of links and some horrible fawning reviews, look here. Oh yeah, there are also huge graphics to download of exciting images like floppy disks and Sony battery changers. I'm convinced whoever did this site did it just to try and leech some software from big companies... "uh, yeah, I got a Web zine, send me some games, OK?" Stay away, this blows. ** RED LIGHT! THIS SUCKS!
Overall Rating: 12
Virtual Jerusalem
URL: http://www.virtual.co.il/
Category: Travel
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
As a "citizen" of Virtual Jerusalem, you not only have access to one of the largest, best-organized data bases on Jerusalem and Israel, but you can also set up your own Web page, participate in polls, contests, or exchange political opinions with other citizens. The "neighborhoods" design may be a little gimmicky, but it, nevertheless, makes everything run smoothly and quickly. Stop by the culture neighborhood for upcoming shows, or hit the retail section to order gifts and merchandise. So much news! Five daily radio broadcasts, news summaries from all the leading Jerusalem dailies, and in-depth political coverage from Virtual Jerusalem' s own City News. Tourist information is also plentiful. Every city should have a page like this.
Overall Rating: 18
Botswana Focus
URL: http://cy.co.za/atg/stbrob.html/
Category: Travel
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Landscapes, wildlife, sunsets, mountain ranges, and panoramas galore -- compliments to the designer(s) of this beautiful page. Beyond the superficial looks, Botswana Focus is also a great introduction to the central African nation. History, current events, stats, maps -- the whole nine yards is served up quickly and with style. This is more than just an electronic brochure, mind you, (tourists need not worry, however; they will be amply provided for). There are also focus articles on conservation crises, links to magazines, and resource databases for more research. If you need to know something about this Botswana, look for it here.
Overall Rating: 18
Musei Vatican
URL: http://www.christusrex.org/www1/vatican/O-Musei.html/
Category: Art
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
I came to this site and found the "Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality"--according to the Pope, who, if memory serves, has taken a vow of chastity and remains as innocent as the day he was born. Hmm. Contradictions notwithstanding, this is a great site to surf. For the pious among us, there's daily news updates from the Holy See, all the latest papal ecunemicals, plus news from around the world. Take a virtual tour of the Vatican. Search through photo archives of everything from sacred art from some of the world's oldest churches to shots from China's Tianemen Square Uprising. If you need a reason to skip Sunday mass, look no further. Amen.
Overall Rating: 18
Blue Penny Quarterly
URL: http://ebbs.english.vt.edu/olp/bpq/front-page.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
This handsome page is a great place to start looking for that elusive literary element on the Internet. Unlike other literary magazines, Blue Penny Quarterly was not spawned by a hard copy magazine, and it's dedication to new media is evident: they not only present hypertext fiction and poetry, but run a literary discussion group at the Blue Kafe site. They also solicit submissions from anyone and everyone. BPQ is also planning a more high-tech poetry journal called New River. And while they exploit the current technology, BPQ remains respectful of good old fashioned writing and storytelling. This is one to bookmark.
Overall Rating: 18
The Adbuster's Culture Jammers Headquarters
URL: http://vanbc.wimsey.com/~sfgray/adbusters/main.html
Category: Media
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
This site is a winner, very interactive, very slick, and full of content. It's a magazine aimed at subverting the culture of consumerism. Tall order, huh? It gets better: they wanna beat the merchandisers with their own weapon, advertisments. Check out this page to join the cause. Get the low-down on "Buy Nothing Day" next November 29. See a few of the most revolting advertisements corporate America ever tried to pull over on you. The Adbuster's own "uncommercials" and "subvertisements" are showcased to the delight of closet revolutionaries like myself. The page is witty but the subject matter is serious, and Adbusters are right on target.
Overall Rating: 18
Chabad-Lubavitch in Cyberspace
URL: http://www.chabad.org/
Category: Religion
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
This Chabad site is smartly designed, interactive, and engaging. Visitors can send in their questions on Judaism, request blessings, or read news from across the world. Of course, there is plenty of information on the Chabad movement, but it was a little perplexing to an ignorant agnostic like myself. I never really grasped the meaning of Chabad or how it differed from other forms of Judaism. I still found plenty to keep me busy, though, browsing through multimedia links to Jewish folk music and visual art, or downloading short stories for children. Interesting stuff, even for a fallen Gentile like myself.
Overall Rating: 18
Retro
URL: http://www.retroactive.com/
Category: Zines
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Under the banner "anything that was ever cool," Retro preserves 20th-century pop culture online and does it well. In addition to articles examining such cultural bygones as down-home blues and Southern painting, Retro boasts classic movie clips and audio samples of music from the old days. Leave messages for other Web browsing anachronists on Retro's own bulletin board. City Guides to experiencing the best of the old are still under construction, but promise to be interesting. Features are updated every two weeks, with new postings daily, which is pretty current for a site dedicated to the passe.
Overall Rating: 18
Stim
URL: http://www.stim.com/
Category: Zines
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
I was well into an issue of Stim before it dawned on me that I had no idea what I was looking at. I followed the "What is Stim?" link but it didn't do much good; the folks at Stim like speaking in riddles. Nevertheless, I think I can say this much for sure: Stim is a boisterous and chaotic 'zine with excellent graphics, boasting a stable of writers with a pinpoint sense of irony, off beat humor and relevance. The subject matter is broad, the tone irreverent without being adolescent. Recent features include an interview with *Geek Love* author, Katherine Dunn, an expose on trashy French cinema, and a rumination on the power and appeal of "skanky girls."
Overall Rating: 18
RedSox.Com
URL: http://www.redsox.com
Category: Sports
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
This site has got everything you'd expect a major league site to have, including box scores, player bios, and game updates after every pitch. Then there's the extras: a photo tour of Fenway, a video game, and profiles of the club's legendarily loyal fans. You really get the sense that this team has a special relationship with its city, something to be appreciated in this day and age. Red Sox history is all about nostalgia -- the epic seasons, the famous runs, the heroic players -- but this site projects a confidence that the greatest days are still to come. The perpetual pennant race, the decades spent pursuing the World Championship, it all makes for a very interesting baseball history.
Overall Rating: 18
Letters from an Iowa Soldier in the Civil War
URL: http://www.ucsc.edu/civil-war-letters/home.html
Category: Humanities
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
One Civil War soldier, who wanted nothing more than to return home and marry his hometown sweetheart, tells us his story at this fantastic site. This site is a piece of American history, a look into our deadliest war from the perspective of an average participant. Each letter is dated and footnoted with pertinent hot links to maps, names, and photos, making tasteful use of the medium without obscuring the significance of the written word. The vernacular of the era is fascinating in and of itself, but combined with the unraveling story of one soldier's experience through our nation's darkest hour, the letters make for great reading. This site is a gem. Don't miss it.
Overall Rating: 18
Oxford Book of English Verse
URL: http://www.cc.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/obev/
Category: Literature
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
You can find it right here, whatever it is. By title, by poet, by date, by first line. Search this word-for-word unabridged on-line version of the Oxford Book of English Verse for the poem you need. The collection is immense, representing five centuries of refinement and expression. There are plenty of surprises to be found, unknown poets languishing in the shadow of Shakespeare, Keats, and Donne, . The indices are impressive, but browsing is the best way to appreciate this site; you just might rediscover your love of poetry and the written word.
Overall Rating: 18
Spiritual Cockroach Engenderment Museum
URL: http://www.dca.net/~kmon
Category: Literature
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
You gotta love these fools (and I use that as a term of endearment) who have enough free time to put up the really random Web sites. Without these guys the Web would have no character, none of the quirky, free-wheeling style that brings a smile to your face. Case in point: the Spiritual Cockroach Engenderment Museum, dedicated to the work of the obscure (with a capital O) German surrealist K. Ungeheur. Here's a writer made for the new medium: his writings make no sense, you see, but each piece is succinct and funny as hell. The site gives an analysis Numero-linguistics, Ungeheur's technique of transforming sentences into mathematical equations and back again. Using the technique, "The dog has fleas" becomes "Your head is very little". This page is a trip. And there are plenty of links to more surrealist sites on the Web. Once you've tried it, you'll definitely want more.
Overall Rating: 18
Ballparks
URL: http://www.ballparks.com
Category: Sports
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
No big baseball fan, I still dug this one. Stadiums are part of American history, after all: the hallowed ground where legends are made, each one a diamond. For too long, stadiums have been shown no respect. Some of the greatest parks of old are now nothing more than a bronze plaque in the ground floor of an apartment building. Polo Grounds, Ebbetts Field, and dozens of others have gone the way of the wrecking ball. This site recounts the history and vital stats of all the current parks in the majors, pays tribute to the fallen stadiums, and even anticipates future construction. It's all a whole lot of fun, smartly designed with plenty of photos for the image-hungry. Plans are in place to include NFL venues.
Overall Rating: 18
Les Pages de Paris
URL: http://www.paris.org
Category: Travel
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Whether you're planning a visit or simply daydreaming of one, this site has something for you. With over 7,000 pages of information, things move a little slowly, but most of it's worth waiting for. The City-o-Lite Site has its own little magazine, Paris Kiosque (very cutesy throwaway schlock) as well as straight up tourist information, i.e. hotels, hostels, schedules, monuments, pictures, and the like -- more info than you'll ever need, and no scowls if you speak French with an accent.
Overall Rating: 17
Furious Green Thoughts
URL: http://members.gnn.com/furious/
Category: Zines
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
What we have here is a lot of vitriolic ranting on topics such as the futility of college degrees, and mind control. A disclaimer at the outset proclaims loud and clear, "We Have No Morals!". It's a prominent strain in cyber-publishing: "unconventional material" representing marginal points of view thrust out there for all to see. There's no agenda, nor any ideological consistency in the critique of the system, but nevermind: shouting this loud takes dedication. Much of the writing is borderline, but that's at least half the fun.
Overall Rating: 17
La Paranoia
URL: http://www.paranoia.com/
Category: Zines
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Paranoia is at the front lines in the war against censorship and government regulation on the Internet. They don't just talk in the abstract about freedom of speech, either; they exercise it. Paranoia has compiled information on all sorts of illegal and subversive activities, from how-to's on scams and hustles to the low-down on the narcotics your mamma warned you about. The design is smart, though text-intensive, and the user Web pages are enough to merit a visit. Granted, acid-trip yarns get kind of old, but I'm impressed that someone took the time to cull the good ones from countless hours of USENET chit-chat.
Overall Rating: 17
Zeitgeist
URL: http://sensei.co.uk/zeitgeist/
Category: Zines
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
The stated aim of Zeitgeist is to provide the reader with "cerebral delicacies." And the writing is certainly intelligent, but is it interesting? The page looks great, and content-wise, it's all distinctively British, from the essay on Morrisey to the dissection of the "mod" ethos. Included in the Art section is a poem on the innocence of childhood, complete with a meadow of flowers in the background; it easily ranks as one of the more inane things I've read this calendar year. The vinyl reviews section is still under construction, but if the focus on Morrissey is any indication, then you have to wonder. To answer my own question: Zeitgeist is a snooze.
Overall Rating: 17
The Paris Review
URL: http://www.voyagerco.com/PR/
Category: Literature
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
For five decades, the Paris Review has bee serving up cutting edge works by the world's most important writers; now it lends its considerable reputation to an eager online intellectuals. This site includes humor, interviews (many available in audio), poetry, fiction, etc. Many features have been expanded from the print version. You can also order t-shirts, back issues, and subscriptions for the real thing. The site is great looking, thanks the esteemed Voyager Company, but this the Paris review after all, so the real star is the writing: check out the opening paragraph fiction teasers and marvel at how precisely and beautifully language can be constructed. content: 3 aesthetic: 2.5 savvy: 2.5
Overall Rating: 17
Internet Poetry Archive
URL: http://sunsite.unc.edu/ipa/
Category: Literature
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
The tendency, sometimes, is to judge a site based on what it could be, on what it promises to become. The Internet Poetry Archive is just such a spot. It has much potential to be a great source of information for all students of the written word. At the moment three poets are highlighted, including Nobel prize-winner Czelaw Milosz. What makes the IPA different from other sites is its open embrace of all the technology available. Listen to the poems in their original language and in translation, read a biography of each artist prepared by a literary scholar, hear what the poet has to say about the meaning of each piece. Graphics, when appropriate, are used to illuminate the subtle meanings of complex works, and short bibliographies encourage deeper study. The IPA promises to expand its database, and upgrade its tech to include video. Though still under construction, it promises to be great.
Overall Rating: 17
The Next Savage State
URL: http://www.directnet.com/Crash/ScreamsAndWhispers/NewCensorship
Category: Literature
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
The Next Savage State makes much of its claims of irreverence, anarchy, and total disinterest in the petty sensibilities of the conformist majority; but forget all that, it's just a showcase for great writers. I can say simply that everything I read here was top-notch, funny, and insightful. Andrei Codrescu (of NPR fame) now holds the record for the single longest piece I've ever read off a computer screen. Order a years worth of hard copies for $30. Or read it here for free. Enjoy.
Overall Rating: 17
Dial-the-Truth
URL: http://www.av1611.org/
Category: Religion
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
I found this page nauseating at times. All the same, I have to commend Dial-the-Truth for its innovative approach to saving souls. At the DTT Web site you can sign up for Bible Study via e-mail or browse through DTT's archive of apocalyptic religious tracts online. Other features include Dial-A- Verse, an order form for pamphlets (free), and an electronic registry of the saved. DTT has definitely mastered the net. Of course, DTT's notion of "the truth" is a narrow one. The site claims to have "saved" satanists, homosexuals, prostitutes, people in prison, cultists, and others; needless to say, they didn't get me.
Overall Rating: 17
Social Justice
URL: http://www.tripod.com/~goforth/socialjustice.html
Category: Zines
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Social Justice celebrates progressive movements in the fight for gender equality, democratic representation, intellectual freedom, and human rights. The programmers take their task seriously. Topics range from murdered street children in Guatemala and Honduras to the rising tide of feminism in France and India, and the extensive links make Social Justice a great place to start surfing for other activist spots on the net. Searching through back issues I found a great interview with Morris Dees, which made excellent use of hypertext to highlight points and clarify details. On the downside, Social Justice is not quite as adept with humor: a section comparing current political leaders to computer viruses was flat. Nevertheless, Social Justice is worthy of the movements it supports.
Overall Rating: 17
The Swagazine Rack
URL: http://mrlinux.durand.com/clark/swagazine/
Category: Literature
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Santa Barbara-area poets and writers bare their souls online. Swagazine was born from a BBS; back in the good old days, it seems the various contributors shared messages of such considerable talent that they decided to pool their efforts, take on the world, and start an Internet publication. Or so the story goes. Anyway, its nearly three years later, and there are two completed issues to show for it. The collected writings are sometimes entertaining, sometimes exasperating, and generally a lot better than average. Be sure to have a look at The Internet Insult Contest: Funny as hell. Every writer has got a handle dating back to the now defunct BBS and an attitude to match. A new issue should be out in late September or October. It's worth checking out.
Overall Rating: 17
Virtual Emily
URL: http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~emilypg/index1.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Emily Dickinson, one of the more enigmatic figures in American literature, has her life deconstructed by the curators of Virtual Emily. With ample respect for the poet and the circumstances in which she created her art, V.E. offers any newcomer to Dickinson the background they will need to understand her truly remarkable contribution to modern poetry. The primary offering is chronological biography that divides her life into periods of productivity, depression, hope, and seclusion. The essays for each period are well-written and informative, supplemented by photographs of the poet and her family and even diagrams of her homestead in Amherst. There are also links to the works that made her posthumously famous.
Overall Rating: 17
Multiplicity
URL: http://www.multiplicity.com
Category: Film
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
The Hollywood studios feel compelled, it seems, to somehow turn the Web into a vehicle for extended movie trailers, big involved things that will really help the movie buff to "get into the movie." But, near as I can tell, they invariably hinge on a gimmicky, faux-interactive interface that just makes you think twice about going to any movie by the same title. On the Multiplicity site, you're asked to decide whether you need a clone. Are you stressed? Bogged down by the constant push-and-pull of modern life? So on and so forth. With the content out of the way, it's on to the game, the heart and soul, it would seem, of any movie site. Requires Shockwave.
Overall Rating: 17
Chain Reaction
URL: http://www.chain-reaction.com
Category: Film
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
The Chain Reaction site tries to make the film look serious, as if the future of mankind were at stake and not just the career of Keanu Reeves (Sorry, Keanu, you'll always be Bill to me. Or was it Ted?). Of course, if you like the idea of this thriller, you can always download a screensaver with an action scene from the new movie. The Research Lab section of the site actually does offer a well-organized, if simplistic, rundown on something as serious as alternative fuel sources and current energy technology. Of course, you'll probably opt for the games, instead, provided you have Shockwave.
Overall Rating: 17
Being There
URL: http://www/valpro.com/cgibin/var/valpro/bethere
Category: Travel
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Now, from the drudgery of your desk job, you can visit Gary Valle's site, where the experienced hiker, mountaineer, and traveler has gathered some of his most spectacular photographs for you to ogle at. The photos are all beautiful, the kind that make you jealous and long for a vacation, but they aren't the only attraction at this great site. Most shots are accompanied by notes, sometimes providing context, sometimes a geographical aside, and often random musings on the landscape. Valle's writing, as you might expect, is very down-to-earth, hip to the pleasures of traveling, and seeing nature at its best. He wants you to get out there yourself, to prod you into getting up and going outside. It works; but until you save up enough money to take time off, follow Gary Valle's site and live vicariously, Walter Mitty-style.
Overall Rating: 17
La Jolla Surfing
URL: http://facs.scripps.edu/surf/surfing.html
Category: Sports
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
If you believe the stereotypes, you can't imagine a bunch of surfers could put together such a good site. This one is on the money, balancing an impressive amount of tech-savvy with old-fashioned, informative writing. There're digital satellite weather maps and wave sensors, so you can check conditions at your favorite beach before you go. There's also a generous amount of how-to stuff, along with equipment and multimedia reviews. Most impressive perhaps was the Respect the Beach Project, a sort of environmental initiative to protect the surfer's playground. The only drawback is the limited California focus (with brief forays south to Baja, Costa Rica, and the like); every region should have a page this good.
Overall Rating: 17
Climbing On-line
URL: http://www.climbing.com
Category: Sports
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Once the pastime of a handful of reckless adventurers, climbing has gone mainstream. With climbing walls in most metropolitan areas and trips to Everest for sale to any weekend warrior with enough cash, the sport's practitioners are equal parts nature-lover and yuppie. Climbing magazine has been there since 1970, trying to keep up with changing circumstances and shifting audiences, while maintaining their ties to the purity of the sport. The site demonstrates a smooth transition. Classy, informative, and with a great respect both for their readers and the mountain experience, this is the site for climbing on the Web.
Overall Rating: 17
InterMat
URL: http://www.intermatwrestle.com
Category: Sports
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
InterMat is trying to turn the sports Web site into a profit-making venture. They may just have the formula right. InterMat offers plenty for the browser/customer to look at, including state by state amateur round-ups, upcomng events, profiles, and job classifieds. But it seemed like every other page had an ad; whether it was selling shoes (cheap!) or home wrestling equipment, Intermat has all the bases covered. Updated regularly, almost daily in fact, Intermat is likely to catch the eye of amateur coaches around the country, looking for prospects, looking for work, buying equipment. Wow, someone may actually be making money from the Internet!
Overall Rating: 17
Civil War Love Letters
URL: http://scholar2.lib.vt.edu/spec/cwlove/cwlove.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Reading these Civil War letters, you get a profound sense of men caught up in something beyond their control, looking for solace in the loved ones they left behind. A man writes to his wife, recounting their courtship with tenderness and nostalgia. Others let their worries spill onto the page; behind the nineteenth century formality of language, there is real anxiety, abandonment, and fear here. One man writes to say that the war has finally shown him that he won't live forever, that he should settle down and get married; "if you should meet any agreeable candidate let her know I'll be home soon". This is a great site for pondering history and human frailty.
Overall Rating: 17
The Ultimate Page
URL: http://www.access.digex.net/~cdl/ultimate.html
Category: Sports
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Why did it take so long for someone to think of Ultimate? Frisbee is not just something you throw to your dog. A sport without a ball may have been a revolutionary idea at the time, but by now it makes a whole lotta sense. This site offers a little perspective on the sport, a quick history, plenty of action photos, and the complete Ultimate Players Association Rules (they're a lot longer than you think). This is also a great place to find that summer league your looking for or the pick-up game you need to get your skills up; there's info on all fifty states. Ultimate is one of those games people love--once they're exposed to it. So expose yourself.
Overall Rating: 17
Muhammad Ali: The Greatest Web site
URL: http://www.theslot.com/ali/
Category: Sports
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
How about a fight by fight recap of Ali's entire career, many highlighted by dramatic shots of the champ in action? You like that? Or a discussion of Ali in relation to the other great fighters of all time? Hmm. Well, perhaps the name of this site is hyperbole, but it's still a contender. There is one thing missing though: more bio. Not everyone is as obsessed with Ali as our programmer, after all; what about the people that want to know more about the man and his story?
Overall Rating: 17
Roots of Lounge
URL: http://www.gonix.com:80/rol/
Category: Music
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
For a little historical context to the furor over "smooth jazz", look no farther than the Roots of Lounge home page. So retro, it's the next thing, this site offers a long look at "highly orchestrated instrumental pop music," "the sound track to suburbia," tracing its evolution from the swing period to its heyday in the late 50's and early 60's. The treatment is largely tongue-in-cheek; with links to the "History of Muzak" and the "TV Themes Home page," Lounge is sufficiently camp to satisfy even this musical snob. The "Lounge/Not lounge" (Athens-Lounge, Sparta-Not Lounge) bit is just too funny, as are the reviews of suggested listening. The jazz link is no good, but then again, jazz is real music.
Overall Rating: 16
Bryant Foundation
URL: http://www.oir.ucf.edu/bryant/
Category: Art
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Featuring a large collection of Caribbean art, this is the sort of site that makes you long for bigger screens. Though the works have been meticulously digitized, with amazing clarity and intense colors, some of the wonder is dulled if you have to scroll down and to the right to see it all. The archive is also a little uneven: some nations like Aruba, are represented by a single work, while others like Haiti, bask in the spotlight with dozens of fantastic paintings. The curators of the site have big plans however, including sorely missed artist bios, and virtual representations of sculptures and other three-dimensional art. Look for this site to become a winner. In the meantime, give thanks for real museums.
Overall Rating: 16
Bob Derr's Gallery of Galleries
URL: http://www.neosoft.com/ kcderr/galleries/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Bob Derr is a zany suit-turned-photographer,and his home page is drenched with that mid-life, just-wanna-have-fun kind of attitude. Joking aside, Derr is obviously talented; his photos of Greece are postcard perfect. He's also a cut-up: check out Bob's Lingerie Gallery (it's not what you think), or his own mini-tribute to the King, which boasts full-color snaps of Bob's favorite Elvis jumpsuits. Also of note: "24 Seconds in Cyberspace." (Family values bonus: at the bottom of every page is a reminder that all Bob's work is dedicated to his father--a nice touch that brought a smile to my face. Who says the Internet is indecent?)
Overall Rating: 16
The Economist
URL: http://www.economist.com/
Category: Media
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
The stalwart British publication retains its signature brand of thorough reporting even in this new medium. They don't give away the store either: only a handful of articles are available each week, but if you know The Economist, you know they're substantial enough to keep you reading awhile. Of note: expatriates can find news from the Isle left out of the American printed version right here, online and uncut. Also at the site, the Review of Books and Multimedia. If you've got a thirst for news and a long attention span, this is the way to go.
Overall Rating: 16
Hinduism Today
URL: http://www.HinduismToday.kauai.hi.us/ashram/htoday.html
Category: Religion
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Hinduism Today is a very intelligent, content-oriented site. Offerings at this site include a text-only version of the magazine (in a handful of languages), discussions of vegetarianism and non- violence, a guide to Hindu health and healing, and dozens of links to other Hindu sites on the net. "Click here to become a Hindu" and you'll find plenty of information about the religion, including history, basic tenets, and translations of holy texts. The lack of images and other techno-savvy gadgets that might be appropriate elsewhere are not exactly missed at HToday. The gravity of the subject matter is well-served by the text-intensive presentation.
Overall Rating: 16
Epistrophy: Jazz in 20th Century Literature
URL: http://ie.uwindsor.ca/jazz/
Category: Literature
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
The relationship between jazz and the written word has been a creative tension since day one. Jazz, with its improvised, headstrong ambition and its vast emotional palette has pushed authors of poetry and prose to explore new possibilities in their own medium. This site celebrates that artistic edge from all angles: the poetry of Langston Hughes, the scholarly essays from jazz historians, the frenetic prose of Kerouac. Amira Bakira examines the famed days of Minton's Playhouse at 134th St. in Harlem. Charles Mingus translates his musical ethos into a prose style all his own in excerpts from his autobiography *Beneath the Underdog*. Still under construction, look for more on the revolutionary free jazz/poetry of the late 1960's, and hopefully, more sound.
Overall Rating: 16
right. The essays are almost overwhelming in their scope and length, but well worth the read. Considering that most of his life Miller published clandestinely to avoid suppression, the bibliography is surprisingly exhaustive. The related links are also helpful, providing a more complete picture of censorship in America, grouping other banned works by author, subject matter, date, legal action taken, etc. U.H.M is an excellent place to learn a little about literature and an artist can challenge a culture to expand its horizons. content: 3 aesthetic: 2 savvy: 2
Overall Rating: 16
Secrets and Whispers
URL: http://www.pacificnet.net/geechee/
Category: Film
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Filmmaker Julia Dash set up this page to promote her work, but its no shallow vanity site. Instead, Ms. Dash tries to put her work in context, within the long tradition of African American film that stretches from Zora Neale Hurston through Paul Robeson to Spike Lee, spanning nearly a century of documenting Black life in these United States. Dash has posted biographies of her favorite women filmmakers, a chronological time line of highlights in Black Cinema, and historical background about the Gullah people, so that you might better understand her prize-winning film Daughters of the Dust. The Web medium is exploited, but always in a tasteful and thoughtful manner. You can view scenes, look at authentic Gullah recipes, or order VHS versions of Dash's work. Secrets and Whispers is just the sort of thing movie sites need: a little sanity, a little history, and a lot of creativity.
Overall Rating: 16
Raider Nation
URL: http://members.aol.com/jimbokli/jimbo/raiders.htm
Category: Sports
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
This is the home page for the Raiders football fan who just wouldn't feel right if they weren't shirtless and painted come game time. We're talking rabid fans commiserating with other rabid fans about their team in Oakland, "the football Mecca of the world" ("FACE WEST AND CHANT 'RAIDERS RULE!'"). You understand the attitude we're dealing with here? Besides checking out stats, rosters, commentary on everything from training camp to the layout of the new stadium, you'll find homages to past championship seasons, and a definition of the "Raider Mystique." Also get your official Raider Nation gear, including beer mugs, shirts, and caps. Sure it only comes in black, but it will look great with a leather jacket and a motorcycle. A great page, damn it all, `cause people just don't take sports seriously enough these days.
Overall Rating: 16
International Hockey :League
URL: http://www.theihl.com
Category: Sports
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
To think that I made it this far without any inkling that something like the International Hockey League even existed! And these ain't no scrubs, has-beens, nor wanna-bes; the IHL is widely regarded as the second best league in the world. What's more, the league pioneered the four quarter game and the television-enhanced puck, while boasting the first black head coach and the first woman to ever play pro hockey. This site is a whole lot of fun, with weekly giveaways, plus all the stats, schedules, etc. you can bear. Keep up with all the season's hockey action right here.
Overall Rating: 16
Aboriginal Studies
URL: http://cooms.anu.edu.au/WWWVL-aboriginal.html
Category: Humanities
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
The WWW Virtual Library is not designed to be flashy or fancy; it's meant to be an effective and quick way to get information. Information, not fluff. At the Aboriginal Studies site, they don't just throw up any link that comes along: Many are called and few are chosen; every site is inspected before it makes the page. Only 72 sites had made the cut when I checked it out, but they represent the meatiest links out there on the subject of Australian Aborigines. The site is updated daily, and the amount of information is truly mind-boggling. This site, like all WWW Virtual Library sites, is a resource for scholars and the intellectually curious everywhere.
Overall Rating: 16
Cold War Hot Links
URL: http://www.stmartin.edu/~dprice/cold.war.html
Category: Humanities
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
The Cold War. I lived through the tail-end of that paranoid era; I remember when Reagan called the U.S.S.R. the Evil Empire and we designed a missile defense program dubbed Star Wars. But the `80s were small potatoes compared to the late `50s, early `60s. The Cuban Missile Crisis, McCarthyism, The missile gap, backyard bomb shelters. *That* was real hysteria. Now Anthropologist David Price has compiled an extensive list of sites dedicated to one-too-distant episode in American history. Go to the House of Un-American Activities Home Page. Check out declassified Pentagon and CIA documents. Get the scuttlebutt on the U.S.'s most repressed homosexual, J. Edgar Hoover. The links are all over the map--some downright ridiculous, some inoperable--but generally good. Relive the good old days, when right was right and red was wrong. I'm prepared to name names.
Overall Rating: 16
Israel Archeology From the Air
URL: http://www.israel-mfa.gov.il/mfa/archair.html
Category: Humanities
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Unlike other sites aimed at attracting tourists to the Holy Land, this site relies almost exclusively on photographs and I guarantee you won't get shots as good as this. Aerial photography provides a unique perspective from which to view both the landscape and the archeological sites that are woven into the geography. Despite the amazing photos, the site does have its limitations. The fact that you can't zoom in on the images gets frustrating; and besides an opening statement, there is little in the way of context or maps. The photos are downloadable and well-worth the time. Or you can go to Israel, rent a plane, and try your own luck.
Overall Rating: 16
Albert Camus Literary Criticism Home Page
URL: http://www.wolfenet.com/~willej/indexa.htm
Category: Humanities
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Albert Camus, novelist, philosopher, member of the French Resistance, is one of those mythic characters of the twentieth century: a man of letters and a man of action, who commanded respect from all circles for his unwavering dedication to principle. This site is gathering of scholarly minds trying to make sense of his writings and thought, analyzing the stark implications of Camus' philosophy. There's also a collection of Camus' own essays, and a succinct biography to acquaint you with the major events in this writer's life. The site suffers from a lack of aesthetic foresight: no one can or should read that long from a monitor, and the legal pad motif makes matters worse. Still, your eyes adjust...
Overall Rating: 16
Chalkhead Records
URL: http://www.chalkhead.com/
Category: Music
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Chalkhead is the sort of innovative enterprise you would expect on the Information Superhighway. They let you hear singles from bands that you would otherwise have no access to, then they let YOU choose the songs you want on your very own customized compact disc. The page itself is really cool. They go through a lot of trouble to explain their mission, and the sincerity shows right through. Chalkhead also solicits demos, DAT's, etc. from bands for possible sale on the Net. Drawbacks: 1) the page is useless without the technology to hear the music 2) Chalkhead deals exclusively with gothic/industrial music. If that's your thing, welcome to the cutting edge.
Overall Rating: 15
Free Tibet
URL: http://emma.manymedia.com:80/tibet/
Category: Political
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
"Free Tibet!" is perhaps the least understood political slogan in the United States. I can't say that I knew anything about Tibet beforehand, so this site was really interesting. No gimmicks, no flashy tech tricks, just lots of information, text, speeches, history, and all that stuff, well-organized and accessible. The built-in search capability is a great feature. View messages from the Dalai Lama, date and time of the next solidarity event, or read current events from the other side of this increasingly tiny planet of ours. Very nice page.
Overall Rating: 15
Cambodia
URL: http://www.cambodia.org
Category: Travel
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Despite being relatively low-tech, this site is a valuable resource, providing an extensive, if not exhaustive, set of links related to Cambodia. Read US. Embassy postings, find out the proper way to sneak across the Thai border, visit the Digital Archive of the Cambodian Holocaust, download Cambodian fonts, or search the Columbia University database of rare Asian books. The possibilities are endless; unfortunately, on my visit, so was the waiting.
Overall Rating: 15
Flakezine
URL: http://www.flakezine.com
Category: Zines
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
In the digital age, a hiatus like the one Flakezine has taken can mean irrelevance and utter failure. A zine that goes for the inside line on snowboard industry gossip, Flakezine bitches ad nauseam about the unholy union between the mainstream publications (all of which come out regularly) and the snowboard manufacturers (that pay their bills). Somewhat amusing and they do have a point, but (until the revolution) money makes the world go round.
Overall Rating: 15
Split
URL: http://www.lainet.com/nomad
Category: Zines
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
As much as I'd like to see Internet ventures like this survive, prosper, even flourish, I can't imagine why anyone would subscribe to Split. For $20/ year you get access to the magazine (which is free to everyone else), plus 1) a personalized Q&A resource 2) a match-maker service in case you can't find anyone to go on that safari with you 3) a free sample of anti-jet lag perfume. Uh-huh. The free part of the mag is fairly pleasant reading: destinations, spots to avoid, etc. They better rethink this strategy. Split can give away perfume by the gallon, but, I promise you, they won't get my twenty bones.
Overall Rating: 15
Flicker Light
URL: http://members.gnn.com/Repasky/Repasky.htm/repasky.htm
Category: Art
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Flicker Light showcases digital art, fiction, poetry, and commentary, all courtesy of the unusual mind contained in the body of Tom Repasky. Just so you know who you're dealing with: Repasky believes his old self was taken over by an interstellar essence or alien of some sort after a near-death experience at age fourteen. He has been pretending to be a human named Tom ever since. His fascination with galaxies and space, etc. can be seen in the flashy neon, Day-Glo space-scapes that inhabit his Web site. The page is very busy, the images get a little abstract, the essays are sometimes cryptic, but his account of his brush with death is a must- read. How do you like our planet, Tom?
Overall Rating: 15
Sacred Cow
URL: http://www.raygun.com/sacredcow/
Category: Art
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
At this site you'll find photo essays with uplifting titles like, "Hollywood Rogues", "Dark Carnival", or (my favorite) "In the Asylum". It's laid out very nicely, with all the good cheer befitting a funeral procession on an overcast Tuesday. The shots, though stark, are dazzling at times, and left me wishing I could get a closer look. I couldn't. The narration lays the gloom and doom on a little thick, but at least their outlook is consistent. There's info on industrial music and a set of O.J. verdict-inspired dirges about the end of the world that left me scratching my head. All in all, you should avoid this site if you're maladjusted, hyper-sensitive, depressed, or asthmatic. Consult your doctor or therapist.
Overall Rating: 15
Smithsonian Magazine
URL: http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/
Category: Media
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Well, it looks awfully nice. Beautiful photographs spliced into the text make for an engaging layout. What's the problem? Well, the contents page promises real articles, interesting ones -- on the resurrection of Gibson guitars, on how Alexandre Dumas battled racism in seventeenth century France -- but what you get are diluted essays, never more than a page long, half of which is pictures. Tell me: how can you say a third of all there is to say about the rebirth of Gibson Guitars in less 500 words? You can't. (Upon closer inspection you'll see that all articles are abstracts of those published in the real magazine). Besides these shoddy synopses there is museum information, schedules for exhibits and events. You can even order your tourist paraphenelia ahead of time and skip the line at the gift shop. All fine and good, but not really a magazine.
Overall Rating: 15
CBS News Up to the Minute
URL: http://uttm.com/
Category: Media
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
I know it's just a name, but I really felt rushed, worried it was going to be updated even as I read. I needn't have worried. UTTM is CBS's grave-yard shift news program; its dramatic moniker hides the fact that it is actually pretty dull. The page is organized like a broadcast, with anchors, headlines, features, movie reviews, sports etc. There's a spot for women's health and even a section for news about space, aptly titled "The Space Space". UTTM boasts video news clips, which isn't that impressive because, hey, I have a television.All I can say is that it really captures the essence of late night news: sleepy and sort of half-assed.
Overall Rating: 15
The Online Literature Library
URL: http://www.literature.org/
Category: Literature
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
In honor of the "sedate and quiet" atmosphere of real world libraries, the author of this site has kept it gray and universally browsable. In its initial phase of production, it's little more than a list of links to the complete texts of classics ranging from *The Origin of Species* to *Frankenstein*, and *The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn*. With the implementation of a search engine (as promised), it shouldn't be long before these pages become useful to researchers and academics. For the time being, however, they're pretty standard fare.
Overall Rating: 15
Freeze-dried Comedy
URL: http://members.aol.com/freezedc/main.htm
Category: Zines
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Hotshot and Mohawk, designers of the Freeze-dried Comedy homepage, grabbed some jokes, some graphics, and threw it together to see what would happen. This site is still young (I was visitor 422 on the counter) and the inexperience shows. Some spots are still under construction, the organization is a little garbled, and most importantly, only about half of the jokes are funny. Admittedly, a few jokes had me laughing, but just as many were duds. There is a roundup, however, of a links to other "funny" sites, under the heading, "Weird Wide Web". Their sponsors page, where they listed Mexico as a patron ("they all chipped in") was somewhat insulting, and the designer's bios are typical: confusing nonsense with humor, and zany for zaniness' sake. content: 2 aesthetic: 2 savvy: 2
Overall Rating: 15
Enzian
URL: http://www.enzian.org/fi/index.html
Category: Film
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Enzian could be a hell of a site if all the features it advertised worked. Though it boasts a comprehensive list of film resources on the Internet, as of this writing at least a third of the links are down, while another fifth lead to shoestring sites that aren't worth seeing in the first place. The search engine is an impotent parody of technology that shrugged "no matching entry" when I tried as sure a bet as "Marlon Brando." Enzian's primary role, then, seems to be to promote the Florida Film Festival, which, by all accounts, needs promoting. Enzian hypes the fifth year of the festival while declaring the state of Florida the ideal place to make a movie. Hmm. But, criticism notwithstanding, Enzian has potential. With some updating and housecleaning it could all come together.
Overall Rating: 15
Go Ski!
URL: http://www.goski.com
Category: Sports
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Go Ski is more travel agent than skiing zine. Everywhere you turn, it's resorts, resorts, resorts, indexed by country, by region, by snow conditions,... even employment opportunities. There's even a damned resort search engine. You'll also find plenty of weather info, and random travel tips (where to stay, where to party, etc.). You have to be more persistent to find the essays on the skiing life, but this is the real heart of Go Ski. Equipment reviews, how to join the National Ski Patrol, etc. All good fun. Go Ski is more geared to the ski bum than the casual skier, which just means you can trust what they're saying.
Overall Rating: 15
Husker News
URL: http://www.net-link.net/~fricke/home.htm
Category: Sports
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Covering all news pertaining to the two-time NCAA champion Nebraska Huskies, this site provides a wealth of information for the dedicated fan. Aside from all the usual stats and prognostications, the best feature of the Husker News is the Video Marketplace, a sort of Huskies-only classifieds where tapes of past games are advertised and traded. I was surprised at how many people were looking for obscure 1984 football games. There aren't many graphics or any high-tech gadgetry to speak of, but it's clear these guys love their team. And judging from the traffic on here, that's all it took to fill a niche.
Overall Rating: 15
Boycott Major League Baseball!
URL: http://www.cybergate.com/~morris/nomlb.htm
Category: Sports
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
An impassioned plea by a disgruntled ex-fan to bring down the system that has perverted America's game. In well-written and well-reasoned prose, the author slams the greedy owners, the spoiled players, and exposes the callous disregard both have shown fans of MLB. He campaigns hard for college and minor league teams as the real embodiment of sport for its own sake, rather than a showcase for the prima donnas who run in the majors. What can I say? I love this site; every single venom-spittin', slap-in-the-face, grudge-holdin', Marge Schott-dissin', Albert Belle-hatin', run-around-the-bases-till-you're-dizzy-and-puke sentence in this site is just perfect.
Overall Rating: 15
Freeeee(z)sssociation
URL: http://www.tezcat.com/~ksbrooks/
Category: Literature
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
When you come across this site, don't slow down, just keep on keeping on. Nothing to see here folks; at least, nothing of substance. Or, if there is, you'll have to spend some time finding it. My time here was just wasted. It all looks great, I give you that: very artsy layout, with smooth lines and engaging visuals. But the poetry, the photography, the intellectual games lead nowhere. A designer is at work here in a vacuum of content. Take the nearest link out.
Overall Rating: 15
Sydney 2000
URL: http://www.sydney.olympic.org
Category: Sports
Issue: 0197
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
As captain of the U.S. Tug-of-War Olympic Team, I fully expect to be collecting gold in 2000. So it was reassuring for me to see that the Aussies are working hard to make my stay comfortable. If the Games go according to plan (historical note: they never do), these should be a raging success. The site offers a look at Sydney, with maps and details of the city, the venues, the sports, and a few subtle volleys aimed at Atlanta. It seems Sydney will have a world-class communication system with no glitches; transportation won't be a problem in Sydney; and safety will be a number one priority in Sydney. We'll see. Tickets for my medal-winning performance will be on sale in 1999. Get 'em while they last.
Overall Rating: 15
College Sports On-line
URL: http://www.collegesports-online.com
Category: Sports
Issue: 0197
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
If you're gonna call it College Sports On-line, shouldn't you have more than just football and basketball? It's just a matter of the appropriate nomenclature, so that those looking for, say, PAC 10 women's field hockey scores aren't misled. Anyway, I sat down to find Bama's football scores, followed the number one link: the Birmingham News (my old hometown paper), and then slam! Instead of going right to the articles on Bama, or even right to the sports section, I have to wade through the welcome page, the front page, the contents, etc. God knows I don't want to read the world according to Birmingham News; the only thing I trust them to do is cover Alabama football! So in a nutshell: College Sports On-line just wasn't as quick or as convenient as it advertised itself to be.
Overall Rating: 15
Classical Net
URL: http://www.classical.net/
Category: Music
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Purportedly out to help the uninitiated understand the repertoire, Classical Net has its work cut out for it. Smartly designed and organized, Classical Net is both visually pleasing and intellectually satisfying. The Recommended Listening Section is designed to help a listener explore the Western canon, each according to their tastes. Demystifying classical music isn't easy, but this site makes great headway. The Classical and Romantic Periods are well covered; while the Modern Music section is very much under construction. Classical Net is soliciting writers to help finish the gargantuan task. Help them out; a resource like this deserves completion.
Overall Rating: 14
NBC Club Noir
URL: http://www.nbc.com/clubnoir/
Category: Music
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
A page that posts such names as Quincy Jones, LL Cool J, and Joshua Redman SHOULD be at the very least decent, but it seems the programmers forgot to put anything of substance behind those links. Lots of teasers announcing chat sessions that already happened. Search for transcripts of those chats and you find the kind of inane discourse in which the questions are longer than the answers (to Ziggy Marley: "Do you think reggae is political?," "Music is music"). I've stepped in puddles with more depth. On the other hand, Club Noir remains the site of choice for that full color photo of Barry White you've been meaning to download.
Overall Rating: 14
Eco-Rating International
URL: http://www.eco-rating.com/
Category: Political
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
This page is more an advertisement for a product than a resource for the consumer. There was little of relevance that was actually "eco-rated", unless you were dying to know about the ecological friendliness of the California vineyards. I was expecting to find environmental report cards on corporations, firms, investments, and products that I had HEARD OF, but instead I encountered arcane explanations of the rating process, with no more than a handful of actual ratings. Taken on its own terms, the site is a good advertisement, compelling arguments are given about the necessity of eco-rating, about the benefit both to the environment and to the bottom line, about blah, blah, and blah, but, (to resurrect an early eighties catch-phrase), WHERE'S THE BEEF?
Overall Rating: 14
The Sewanee Review
URL: http://www.sewanee.edu/sreview/Home.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
An elegant home page, with its stained-glass graphic and friendly editorial, gives this southern site a fitting sense of hospitality. Published since 1892, a history of the *Sewanee Review* suggests that its devotion to literature, regardless of the latest "critical lunacies," has been the magazine's key to success. As of this review, this is the most illuminating information on site. If that doesn't grab you, feel free to read the currently featured poets, including Neal Bowers and Jeffrey Harrison, browse the editor's links, or consult the writer's guidelines. Or wait until the site is done. Aesthetics: 2 Content: 2 Smarts: 1
Overall Rating: 14
Cultures of the Andes
URL: http://www.andes.org
Category: Humanities
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
I know there's gotta be a few people out there looking for some good jokes in Quechua. Well, look no further. Andes.Org has a lot to offer anyone interested in this cultural region of South America. There are audio files of Quechua songs, lessons in the basic structure of the language, a pronunciation guide, as well as dozens of pictures of the region in which the language has currency. Not the product of an organization, this is the fruit of a mere husband and wife team. The site could certainly use maps and more historical context, and I'd love to see video of the traditional dances that are described in such detail. The novelty of Quechua jokes (funny though they may be) does not compensate for some major oversights, like the absence of an account of the Spanish Conquest.
Overall Rating: 14
Vintage Guitar
URL: http://www.vguitar.com
Category: Music
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
There's just something about vintage guitars; maybe its the smooth shine of fine wood, the elegance of an ebony inlay, or the sensuality of the hand-crafted contours that makes men covetous. It's not uncommon to find guitarists in a shop drooling over a vintage spread like seventh grade boys checking out a centerfold. Ah, but how do you translate this beauty to the Web? Not this way. Vintage Guitar, which routinely puts out issues of 200 pages or more, has transferred scarcely a fifth of its archives online. They let you look at the contents, but you can't read anything. They let you glance at a few thumbnail-size guitars, but without the detail, every guitar, no matter how amazing, pretty much looks like any other. I don't want to rely on the caption to tell me what it is; I want to see it! Except for the classifieds (which are extensive and free), there is nothing here that does justice to the instruments or the craftsmen that fashioned them.
Overall Rating: 14
r works rotting in the dusty shelves of an obscure library than be eulogized by a tiny Internet blip that says more about your interior decoration than your writing.
Overall Rating: 13
Semiotics for Beginners
URL: http://www.aber.ac.uk/~dgc/semiotic.html
Category: Humanities
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
I, for one, have better things to do than read someone's thesis from a computer screen. Semiotics, the notional science of symbolic meaning in our daily lives, seems like a subject that could be well adapted to the Internet--the very act of communicating electronically must be symbolic of something. But instead of a fascinating, interactive rollercoaster ride and all-out deconstructionist jag on modern life, we get page after page of writing that never gets going. I found going farther and farther down the rabbit hole, trying in vain to find something, anything worth looking at. Notice I didn't say read; who reads more than a page off a monitor? Not me.
Overall Rating: 13
Gun Info
URL: http://www.guninfo.org/
Category: Political
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Sites like this one are a resource for researchers, but offer very little to anyone else. Gun Info is a more of a bibliography than an independent store of info. As such it's a decent place to start, but the real material is elsewhere. Card catalogue sites like this are dissapointing; it's just easier to go to the library, where they actually have the books, not just the titles and publishing dates. But follow the nearest Web-based link out of this page and you're bound to find what your looking for.
Overall Rating: 12
Everything Postmodern
URL: http://helios.augustana.edu/~gmb/postmodern/
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Guzzle that fifth cappuccino, grab another pack of Gitanes and dive into this amazingly comprehensive resource of all things PoMo. The trendiest of French Intellectuals are represented here -- Baudrillard, Foucault, etc. -- with plenty of links to keep even the most critical critical theorist occupied for years. (There is *plenty* of postmodern verbiage being spewed throughout the net--on Web sites, FAQs, zines, academic journals, and the requisite alt.postmodern newsgroup.) Be ready for some serious deconstructions when launching off from this Web construction. Bring yer hard hat!
Overall Rating: 18
OUT.com
URL: http://www.out.com/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
A finely designed and easily navigated site from one of the premier gay and lesbian lifestyle magazines in the US. These pages overflow with news, arts, health, gossip, politics, and dozens of other subjects all tackled with Out's signature hip and intelligent reporting style. The point-and-click US map is really nifty, giving information on cool events, bars and clubs. Content from Out is also available for your viewing pleasure, but this site is anything but shovelware. A one-stop online shop for Queer culture.
Overall Rating: 18
2.0.1.3 Transmissions from Quantum Time
URL: http://www.speakeasy.org/~z2013/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
From the Intergalactic Dream Convergence Project comes this exquisitely designed subcultural launch pad to interdimensional travels. "Information is light is information," is their maxim for the next step in the evolution of our consciousness. Once we've experienced hyperlinked hyperthought, we can open the dialogue with other worldly minds to exchange our multi-dimensional memes. Time's a waistin'. Better hop on the neural networked bus to a higher level of space-time. Getting there is half the fun.
Overall Rating: 18
Welcome to Fashion Internet
URL: http://www.finy.com/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The Fashion Internet is one of the most informative and exciting fashion locales online. Elegantly designed, content rich (and slow to download), FI gives the word from the New York runways and features articles like the "Clueless Guy's Guide to Buying a Suit," and the bios and biz information in the virtual showrooms from big name designers like Bill Blass and Donna Karen are useful for insight into hot couture. But most fun on FI is "Yak," where you can rant to your heart's content about trends, anti-trends, and platform shoes. Deep discourse for real designers, and fashion fun for the rest of us in jeans and t-shirts.
Overall Rating: 18
BioTech
URL: http://biotech.chem.indiana.edu/
Category: Science
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
BioTech is the premier source for information on genetic engineering, the ability to alter nature at a very basic level. The glossary of biotechnology terms is an inspiring launching point to gain literacy about this astounding branch of science. Annotated links, searchable databases, and pointers to other biotech professional resources make this site a one-stop shop for information. In addition, clean design and keen use of search engines help to ease the strain of information overload. Forget about virtual reality, let's design our own natural world. Stop here to explore what it means to play god.
Overall Rating: 18
Smithsonian Natural History
URL: http://nmnhwww.si.edu/nmnhweb.html
Category: Science
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
If you've ever been to Washington DC, you know better than to "drop in" to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. A day is the minimum requirement for this historical tour de force. But if you can't go to the mountain... This site, like the museum, overflows with news and notes about all that is natural. Anthropology, Botany, Mineral Sciences, and other scientific branches have sections here. The Entomology Monthly Newsletter is a real joy. Bugs galore, people! The Mammal Species of the World offers a multimedia taxonomic database of all 4,629 recognized species of mammals. Guess what -- Humans aren't nearly the most interesting.
Overall Rating: 18
Jazz Online
URL: http://www.jazzonln.com/
Category: Music
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Since its emergence over 50 years ago, jazz has been perennially hip. Jazz Online is the Web's premier entryway into the genre, featuring interviews, biographies, CD Reviews, Xing-streamed radio, and insightful profiles. A recent gem, for example, is a conversation with Ravi Coltrane, who does not want to be known as his father's son. Elegantly designed and knee-deep in information, Jazz Online is the coolest virtual jazz bar on the net.
Overall Rating: 18
Res Rocket Surfer
URL: http://www.resrocket.com/
Category: Music
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Res Rocket is the perfect illustration of why the Web excites creative minds; namely, the potential for collaboration between artists around the world. Res Rocket's ingenious software enables users all over the world to jam in real-time as part of the Res Rocket Surfer virtual band. Via real-time MIDI signals, synthesized soundscapes from London can be overlaid on jungle drums from San Francisco, for example, to create true World Music in the Moo-based virtual worlds of RRS. It's free to join, and the only requirement is a desire to be another neuron in this evolving performance of the Third Mind.
Overall Rating: 18
OUT.com
URL: http://www.out.com/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
A finely designed and easily navigated site from one of the premier gay and lesbian lifestyle magazines in the US. These pages overflow with news, arts, health, gossip, politics, and dozens of other subjects all tackled with Out's signature hip and intelligent reporting style. The point-and-click US map is really nifty, giving information on cool events, bars and clubs. Content from Out is also available for your viewing pleasure, but this site is anything but shovelware. A one-stop online shop for Queer culture.
Overall Rating: 18
2.0.1.3 Transmissions from Quantum Time
URL: http://www.speakeasy.org/~z2013/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
From the Intergalactic Dream Convergence Project comes this exquisitely designed subcultural launch pad to interdimensional travels. "Information is light is information," is their maxim for the next step in the evolution of our consciousness. Once we've experienced hyperlinked hyperthought, we can open the dialogue with other worldly minds to exchange our multi-dimensional memes. Time's a waistin'. Better hop on the neural networked bus to a higher level of space-time. Getting there is half the fun.
Overall Rating: 18
Welcome to Fashion Internet
URL: http://www.finy.com/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The Fashion Internet is one of the most informative and exciting fashion locales online. Elegantly designed, content rich (and slow to download), FI gives the word from the New York runways and features articles like the "Clueless Guy's Guide to Buying a Suit," and the bios and biz information in the virtual showrooms from big name designers like Bill Blass and Donna Karen are useful for insight into hot couture. But most fun on FI is "Yak," where you can rant to your heart's content about trends, anti-trends, and platform shoes. Deep discourse for real designers, and fashion fun for the rest of us in jeans and t-shirts.
Overall Rating: 18
BioTech
URL: http://biotech.chem.indiana.edu/
Category: Science
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
BioTech is the premier source for information on genetic engineering, the ability to alter nature at a very basic level. The glossary of biotechnology terms is an inspiring launching point to gain literacy about this astounding branch of science. Annotated links, searchable databases, and pointers to other biotech professional resources make this site a one-stop shop for information. In addition, clean design and keen use of search engines help to ease the strain of information overload. Forget about virtual reality, let's design our own natural world. Stop here to explore what it means to play god.
Overall Rating: 18
Smithsonian Natural History
URL: http://nmnhwww.si.edu/nmnhweb.html
Category: Science
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
If you've ever been to Washington DC, you know better than to "drop in" to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. A day is the minimum requirement for this historical tour de force. But if you can't go to the mountain... This site, like the museum, overflows with news and notes about all that is natural. Anthropology, Botany, Mineral Sciences, and other scientific branches have sections here. The Entomology Monthly Newsletter is a real joy. Bugs galore, people! The Mammal Species of the World offers a multimedia taxonomic database of all 4,629 recognized species of mammals. Guess what -- Humans aren't nearly the most interesting.
Overall Rating: 18
Tattoos.com
URL: http://tattoos.com/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Tattooing has evolved from the stuff of hoods and sailors in grimy port parlors to being recognized as the true art form it can be. This e-zine is one of the most comprehensive and professionally-produced body art resources in the mediascape. Reports from tattoo conventions, a rich gallery of ink work, plenty of links to related sites and Real Audio files make this a stop worthy of the most illustrated human beings. Now how much would that little devil cost again?
Overall Rating: 18
ULURU- Interactive Cyberopera
URL: http://www.orbitex.ch/uluru
Category: Music
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
ULURU is the Aboriginal name for Ayers Rock, a massive hunk of sandstone in the Australian desert. It is also the name of this ambitious trek into avant-garde transmedia art. Since the project began several years ago, Austrian-Swiss composer Robert Bachmann has melded minds with musicians, digital artists, dancers, and installation artists to expand this masterpiece into a diverse collection of works. The creation of the ballet, symphony, and the Web site, for example, are part of the performance. ULURU is fractal art, where every element represents the whole. Lose yourself in this beautifully complex system where the process is the product.
Overall Rating: 18
Cage on the Internet
URL: http://www.emf.net/~mal/cage.html
Category: Music
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The late John Cage is the father of experimental music and possibly the most influential avant-garde artist of the 20th century. Fans and initiates can peruse the massive list of the artist's works on this site. If the fifty or so links to Cage resources aren't enough, ease into "Silence," the anything but quiet John Cage email list. Years ago, performance art queen Laurie Anderson asked Cage if he thought things were getting better or worse. His answer? Things are getting faster. If only he could be online.
Overall Rating: 18
Grateful Dead
URL: http://www.dead.net
Category: Music
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Jerry Garcia may be dead, but the Dead is not. The enduring Deadhead subculture thrives on the Web. Cyberspace, after all, is a fine place to communicate with the extended family. Whether you're a fan or not, this page is worth a visit. Read about the new projects of the living band members, give a hearty "hey now" to other fans via a linked IRC channel, and, yes, drop some cash on some Deadwear (no bartering). It's good to see that the Heads have a strong online hub for the post-Jerry leg of this long strange trip.
Overall Rating: 18
The Geometry Center Welcome Page
URL: http://www.geom.umn.edu/
Category: Science
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The Geometry Center is a happening math research and education outpost at the University of Minnesota, and their home page offers much more than the definition of an isosceles triangle. You can even play with nifty Java or frame-based math programs. Orbifuld Pinball, for instance, is a nerdy-but-fun approach to exploring the effects of negatively curved space. Download math shareware packages, including plenty of graphing apps, and peruse the Geometry Reference Archive for formulas galore. The next step in high-tech sliderules.
Overall Rating: 18
Satlab Server
URL: http://satftp.soest.hawaii.edu/satlab/
Category: Science
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
For the last six years, the Satlab Server has been a dependable home for satellite images of Hawaii and the Central Pacific. The geographically privileged folks at the University of Hawaii are kind enough to provide satellite images and tidal news from the islands. Not excited by the view from a polar-orbiting or geostationary satellite? Then check out the live camera images of the islands to see what you're missing. The weather and wave info is enough to make any mainland surfer green with envy.
Overall Rating: 18
GaySource
URL: http://www.gaysource.com/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
GaySource is a monthly magazine for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community. This month's "cover" story is an insightful interview with comedienne Lea Delaria. Inside are travel, health, spirituality, gay pride, and other information-filled departments--there is something for everyone here. Add the chat rooms, relevant links, and reader-feedback areas to make GaySource a fine example of what an "interactive magazine" can really be. And they even have ads!
Overall Rating: 18
Ben and Jerry's Homemade, Inc.
URL: http://www.benjerry.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Welcome to the tasty online home of the Ben and Jerry's empire. Designed in their signature Crayola-meets-microdot style, this site is like Cherry Garcia--dig and you'll find plenty of treats. Learn about Increase The Peace, a program the promotes creative and non-violent resolutions of conflicts. Check out the Flavor Graveyard of phased-out taste treats like Tennessee Mud and Fred and Ginger. Or learn how to build a paper cow with a bobbing head! Plenty of fun--pass the Chunky Monkey!
Overall Rating: 18
@griculture
URL: http://www.agriculture.com
Category: Science
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
In this day and age farming is a lot more high-tech than just tractors and herbicides, as @griculture Online demonstrates in spades. An offshoot of Successful Farming magazine, @g Online has established partnerships with many large farming-related organizations including the Data Transmission Network and FFA, to increase both content and hits to the site. Busy bulletin boards, weather updates, equipment for sale listings, and new product reviews make @g Online to watch if you're in the business. Even if the closest you get to farming is the produce section of the grocery, stop here for a hint at what goes into those juicy tomatoes.
Overall Rating: 18
House of Blues
URL: http://hob.com/
Category: Music
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The House of Blues has become a "Fillmore-esque" concert hall chain of the 90s--host to the hottest artists from across the musical spectrum. And while an evening at one of the Houses is worth a thousand words, the clubs aren't on every corner. So kudos to the HOB gang for dropping cash on the technology to make their brand, and the music it represents, a worldwide phenomenon. Chats with the likes of Luther Allison and Charlie Musselwhite are frequent, music news is neverending, and the online Real Audio concerts are actually worth tuning into--Joshua Redmon is always a good listen. As far as the HOB's big-budget design goes: glitzy graphics, Java, and animated GIFs are slick, but--and I hate to use the Web review cliche--it all makes for a damned slow download!
Overall Rating: 18
Net Lingo
URL: http://www.netlingo.com
Category: Reference
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
As the Web is woven, a new language emerges that those in-the-know use to communicate. Words and terms like ISDN, daemon, and packet switching are examples of the specialized jargon of the online world. For both newcomers and long-time denizens, techno-conversations can be a Tower of Babel unless certain definitions are set down. That's where Net Lingo comes in. A glossary to hundreds of Internet-related technical terms, Net Lingo is searchable, hyperlinked and elegantly simplistic. The definitions are clear and concise, with a "more" button for those who want to delve deeper. Finely designed and intelligently produced, Net Lingo is positioned to be the semantics storehouse of cyberspace.
Overall Rating: 18
Gravity
URL: http://www.newsavanna.com/gravity/default.shtml
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0197
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
More than a 'zine, Gravity is a virtual community with its roots in African-American culture, art, music, and issues. Beautifully designed, the site is crisp, clear, and actually readable (a rarity for text-based sites!). Gravity is a discussion spot, where members of the community create the content--reviews of books, media commentary, sports talk, etc.. Often when this is the case, the content suffers. Not everyone is a writer. But the small Gravity community features high-quality postings, well thought-out opinion, and a true sense of "interaction," not with machines but with people.
Overall Rating: 18
Real Saigon
URL: http://www.realsaigon.com
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0197
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Real Saigon is one of the most beautiful cultural experiences I've ever had the pleasure of visiting on the Web. Dedicated to all things Vietnamese, and filled with animations, music, and fine writing, Real Saigon is a highly immersive and educational site. Everything from business to women's issues to Vietnamese food to children's folk tales is exquisitely presented here. Take a look through this window onto an exciting and intriguing community created by and for people of Vietnamese descent.
Overall Rating: 18
Net Lingo
URL: http://www.netlingo.com/
Category: Reference
Issue: 0197
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
As the Web is woven a new language emerges that those in-the-know use to communicate. Words and terms like ISDN, daemon, and packet switching are examples of this meta-language, jargon used online to describe the online world. For both newcomers and long-time denizen, techno-conversations can be a Tower of Babble unless certain definitions are defined. That's where Net Lingo clicks in. A glossary to hundreds of Internet-related technical terms, Net Lingo is searchable, hyperlinked and elegantly simplistic. The definitions are clear and concise, with a "more" button if you want to delve deeper. Finely designed and intelligently produced, Net Lingo is positioned to be the semantics storehouse of Cyberspace.
Overall Rating: 18
Karl Tiedemann
URL: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~tiedeman/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
This is easily one of the best designed and technically superb vanity home pages to emerge from the bowels of the Web. Shockwave, Tables, VRML -- Karl experiments with all of it. But then again, it's his biz. This guy runs an interactive video and graphic design company that bleeds professionalism, unlike the current crop of money-grubbing "Web Designers" that are advertising up a storm in your town. Karl also has included a bonus rant on his site about the Ann Arbor, MI chapter of the Anti-Squirrel Coalition. I don't get it either. But you still better watch out for this guy. Or hire him.
Overall Rating: 17
The Page Generator v2.0
URL: http://www.cs.uoregon.edu/~jolson/generator/
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Instant gratification! The Page Generator gives us what we want -- a home page of our own -- when we want it, which of course is right now! Enter in some basic design guidelines -- color of background, size of print, title of page, etc. The machine than cranks out a cookie-cutter page that can be mailed to you for placement on your server. I love it! Web pages on demand! Forget learning HTML in a week. That's for people with too much time on their hands, nerds, and those lucky enough to get paid for programming. Perhaps *now* I'll get around to creating home pages for my favorite candy bars.
Overall Rating: 17
Labyrinth
URL: http://www.georgetown.edu:80/labyrinth/
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Georgetown coughs up some deep history with this one, specifically notes from the Medieval annals. This is a well-designed guide to electronic Medieval studies resources from around the globe. Follow the links to Medieval art exhibits, academic journals, and raw texts available online for study. There's even a magical thread to help you find your way back from the depths of the Labyrinth. Heaven for a Medieval Studies scholar, or a Dungeons and Dragons geek.
Overall Rating: 17
The Birdhouse
URL: http://www.birdhouse.org/users/shacker/
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The Birdhouse is a loose collective of Dadaists, Surrealists, Situationists, and almost any other kind of avant-garde "ist" you can think of. A virtual literary/art magazine of sorts, the Birdhouse is a collaborative gallery of fringe art, text and meldings of all media presented in the spirit of Duchamp, Dali and Breton. Expose the world to the twisted musings of your subconscious via the Conspiracy of Sleepers Deus Ex Machina Dream Input Device. Fragment your linear lives with cut-ups and collage. Surreal splendor through Java, Frames, and freaks! What an insanely beautiful combination.
Overall Rating: 17
Heartless Bitches International
URL: http://infoweb.magi.com/~nataliep/heartless.html
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
I dig these bitches. And I mean that only in the kindest sense of the word. The grrrls behind this site are fed up with sexist boys who not only harass women in the workplace, but high-five each other yelling "Sa-weet!" Filled with lists of other offensive acts, real-life heartless bitches, and anti-whining rants, this site is a rad "how's it going" from post-feminist modernist women tired of your (and my) "I'm not sexist, but..." bullshit. Unfortunately, I'm a straight male which means I can't join this organization. But I'd definitely submit myself to these modem grrrls if they would have me. After all, I hate feminine deodorants too!
Overall Rating: 17
HST Greatest Hits Gallery
URL: http://www.stsci.edu/pubinfo/BestOfHST95.html
Category: Science
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
This collection of dozens of beautiful images shot from the Hubble Space Telescope is a must-see for anyone interested in a better view of a starry, starry night. The red luminescent gas "hula hoops" framing the debris of a 1987 supernova explosion put 2001: A Space Odyssey to shame. Truly mystifying. Snapshots of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet bombarding Jupiter or the suspected black hole in Galaxy NGC 4261 make me wish I'd followed my childhood dream -- Astronaut Pesco reporting for duty.
Overall Rating: 17
Unit Conversion Calculators in JavaScript
URL: http://www.cyberstation.net/~jweesner/conv.html
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
While not a groundbreaking achievement in the world of Java, this page of unit conversion calculators is a nifty bookmark if you need to convert quarts to gallons, kilograms to troy pounds (don't ask), or inches to nautical miles, for example. Enter the number you have and the Java script quickly converts for you. Very useful if you never could remember how many centimeters are in an inch. (I was absent that day.) But why do the calculators have a calibration feature? As if atmospheric pressure will alter the conversions?
Overall Rating: 17
Java Applet Rating
URL: http://www.jars.com/
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
With the Web's high noise factor, good rating systems are a god-send. And now with new Web technologies surfacing, the technique has been applied to Java applets. This site rates applets in categories based on Top 1%, 5%, etc., including a list of the Top 100 Java applets floating about online. The expert judges are Java developers, writers on the subject, and leaders of Web users groups. Many genres of Java apps are covered here, from an Atlas, to technical programs, to games, and I'm in agreement with most of the reviews so far. For example, the Java Pac Man applet does, in fact, rule.
Overall Rating: 17
Pepsi World Introduction
URL: http://www.pepsi.com/
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Wow! This is sort of a Pepsi "Challenge" for the digital generation --an example of Web technology at it's finest. See if you can cut through all the bells, whistles, Shockwave, Java, VRML, Real Audio, Frames, etc. to make it to the content. And that's no easy task. While this site is technically and graphically superb, navigation is not intuitive. It's way too easy to lose yourself in the chat rooms, message board, pop culture snippets, music reviews, games, contests, and Doom-esque graphical interface. Very elaborate, but then again, too much is sometimes just that. Sensory overload! Ahhhhhh! You're losing me! Give me Lynx quick! Text only!!!! Text only!!!!
Overall Rating: 17
Labyrinth
URL: http://www.georgetown.edu:80/labyrinth/
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Georgetown coughs up some deep history with this one, specifically notes from the Medieval annals. This is a well-designed guide to electronic Medieval studies resources from around the globe. Follow the links to Medieval art exhibits, academic journals, and raw texts available online for study. There's even a magical thread to help you find your way back from the depths of the Labyrinth. Heaven for a Medieval Studies scholar, or a Dungeons and Dragons geek.
Overall Rating: 17
The Birdhouse
URL: http://www.birdhouse.org/users/shacker/
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The Birdhouse is a loose collective of Dadaists, Surrealists, Situationists, and almost any other kind of avant-garde "ist" you can think of. A virtual literary/art magazine of sorts, the Birdhouse is a collaborative gallery of fringe art, text and meldings of all media presented in the spirit of Duchamp, Dali and Breton. Expose the world to the twisted musings of your subconscious via the Conspiracy of Sleepers Deus Ex Machina Dream Input Device. Fragment your linear lives with cut-ups and collage. Surreal splendor through Java, Frames, and freaks! What an insanely beautiful combination.
Overall Rating: 17
Heartless Bitches International
URL: http://infoweb.magi.com/~nataliep/heartless.html
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
I dig these bitches. And I mean that only in the kindest sense of the word. The grrrls behind this site are fed up with sexist boys who not only harass women in the workplace, but high-five each other yelling "Sa-weet!" Filled with lists of other offensive acts, real-life heartless bitches, and anti-whining rants, this site is a rad "how's it going" from post-feminist modernist women tired of your (and my) "I'm not sexist, but..." bullshit. Unfortunately, I'm a straight male which means I can't join this organization. But I'd definitely submit myself to these modem grrrls if they would have me. After all, I hate feminine deodorants too!
Overall Rating: 17
HST Greatest Hits Gallery
URL: http://www.stsci.edu/pubinfo/BestOfHST95.html
Category: Science
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
This collection of dozens of beautiful images shot from the Hubble Space Telescope is a must-see for anyone interested in a better view of a starry, starry night. The red luminescent gas "hula hoops" framing the debris of a 1987 supernova explosion put 2001: A Space Odyssey to shame. Truly mystifying. Snapshots of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet bombarding Jupiter or the suspected black hole in Galaxy NGC 4261 make me wish I'd followed my childhood dream -- Astronaut Pesco reporting for duty.
Overall Rating: 17
Unit Conversion Calculators in JavaScript
URL: http://www.cyberstation.net/~jweesner/conv.html
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
While not a groundbreaking achievement in the world of Java, this page of unit conversion calculators is a nifty bookmark if you need to convert quarts to gallons, kilograms to troy pounds (don't ask), or inches to nautical miles, for example. Enter the number you have and the Java script quickly converts for you. Very useful if you never could remember how many centimeters are in an inch. (I was absent that day.) But why do the calculators have a calibration feature? As if atmospheric pressure will alter the conversions?
Overall Rating: 17
Java Applet Rating
URL: http://www.jars.com/
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
With the Web's high noise factor, good rating systems are a god-send. And now with new Web technologies surfacing, the technique has been applied to Java applets. This site rates applets in categories based on Top 1%, 5%, etc., including a list of the Top 100 Java applets floating about online. The expert judges are Java developers, writers on the subject, and leaders of Web users groups. Many genres of Java apps are covered here, from an Atlas, to technical programs, to games, and I'm in agreement with most of the reviews so far. For example, the Java Pac Man applet does, in fact, rule.
Overall Rating: 17
Pepsi World Introduction
URL: http://www.pepsi.com/
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Wow! This is sort of a Pepsi "Challenge" for the digital generation --an example of Web technology at it's finest. See if you can cut through all the bells, whistles, Shockwave, Java, VRML, Real Audio, Frames, etc. to make it to the content. And that's no easy task. While this site is technically and graphically superb, navigation is not intuitive. It's way too easy to lose yourself in the chat rooms, message board, pop culture snippets, music reviews, games, contests, and Doom-esque graphical interface. Very elaborate, but then again, too much is sometimes just that. Sensory overload! Ahhhhhh! You're losing me! Give me Lynx quick! Text only!!!! Text only!!!!
Overall Rating: 17
Skeleton Closet
URL: http://www.realchange.org/
Category: Political
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The dirt is what drives us. In this Closet is a beautiful summary of the allegations and confirmed scandals surrounding our glorious leaders and those who want to be. Get insight into Bob Dole's short fuse, Clinton's Whitewater past, and Newt's rubber checks. With plenty of information and, most importantly, a comprehensive list of sources for the tidbits, the Skeleton Closet is where I'll be hanging my hat during the fall of 1996, when things really start to get interesting.
Overall Rating: 17
Virtual Garden
URL: http://pathfinder.com/@@EucPNeG6gAAAQISI/vg/
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Let's face it: You either have a green thumb, or you prefer plastic plants. I'm the latter kind of person. But still, the Virtual Garden offers a wealth of information I wish I could put to use. The searchable plants encyclopedia is really amazing -- learn to identify the three forms of lettuce and discover if the Adiantum plant really has the power to thicken and curl hair. For the more diehard dirt dweller, the site has numerous online gardening books and magazines to peruse and even a directory of the finest botanical gardens in the world. Couldn't find any Cannabis Sativa growing tips on the site, though.
Overall Rating: 17
Karl Tiedemann
URL: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~tiedeman/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
This is easily one of the best designed and technically superb vanity home pages to emerge from the bowels of the Web. Shockwave, Tables, VRML -- Karl experiments with all of it. But then again, it's his biz. This guy runs an interactive video and graphic design company that bleeds professionalism, unlike the current crop of money-grubbing "Web Designers" that are advertising up a storm in your town. Karl also has included a bonus rant on his site about the Ann Arbor, MI chapter of the Anti-Squirrel Coalition. I don't get it either. But you still better watch out for this guy. Or hire him.
Overall Rating: 17
The Page Generator v2.0
URL: http://www.cs.uoregon.edu/~jolson/generator/
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Instant gratification! The Page Generator gives us what we want -- a home page of our own -- when we want it, which of course is right now! Enter in some basic design guidelines -- color of background, size of print, title of page, etc. The machine than cranks out a cookie-cutter page that can be mailed to you for placement on your server. I love it! Web pages on demand! Forget learning HTML in a week. That's for people with too much time on their hands, nerds, and those lucky enough to get paid for programming. Perhaps *now* I'll get around to creating home pages for my favorite candy bars.
Overall Rating: 17
Earthquake Info from the U.S.G.S
URL: http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/
Category: Science
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Living in the San Francisco Bay Area, I'm well aware that it's not a matter of "if the Big One comes," but "when it comes." This site is "Earthquake Central" with up-to-the-minute information on tremors around the world, tips on how to prepare for quakes, and clear explanations of the science behind (or shall we say under) earthquakes. Besides the facts, some fine infotainment is at your fingertips, too. Worth a quick read, for example, is the "Late Night Musings of an Earthquake Seismologist." Next time I feel a shaking under my shoes, I'm going to "duck, cover, and hold," then wait patiently for this page to load.
Overall Rating: 17
Bob Marley
URL: http://softrax.com/pub/marley/marley.html
Category: Music
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
With a long and detailed biography of Bob Marley, complemented by beautiful images of the man and his musical family, this page is a finely tuned introduction to the rich culture and teachings that Marley lived, loved, and conveyed through music. The frames are a bit tight, but effective in keeping the hypertext-rich site organized and easily navigable. A worthy tribute, and home to Detroit's Marcus Garvey Records, you can order almost everything you need to get into the Reggae spirit here. Almost everything.
Overall Rating: 17
Ubu Web
URL: http://www.dnai.com/~obo/ubu/
Category: Music
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Back when Pere Ubu formed in 1975, "alternative" was synonymous with "weird." This band is still just plain weird. To get an inkling of what I mean, visit Ubu Web, the group's "Avant Garage Online," for release details, deep Ubu history, and "Media Priests of the Big Lie," a trippy narrative by Ubu vocalist, David Thomas. A beautifully designed page, but oddly enough, totally visual. Ubu cites the degradation caused by compression as the main reason for not "downsampling." The second and farther-reaching rationale? "Soon enough you will be living in a world in which all art is nothing but software and no objects have value and no ideas have value."
Overall Rating: 17
This is Mega-Mathematics
URL: http://www.c3.lanl.gov/mega-math/
Category: Education
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Number news and notes from our friends at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. But rather than bog us down with odd symbols and complicated formulas, Mega-Mathematics throws down visual problems, twisted games, and strange anecdotes to teach the rules of logic, graphing, and other mind-bending mathematics. Beautifully-designed and organized so you can go as deep as you want into each subject or lose yourself entirely in this seemingly infinite collection. Infinite? What does that really mean? Look here to find out. Allegedly the site is geared for elementary school children, but I learned more than a few things.
Overall Rating: 17
NOAA Live Access to Climate Data
URL: http://ferret.wrc.noaa.gov/fbin/climate_server
Category: Science
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
While too complex for the layman, this site looks to be a technical wonder for meteorologists, climate researchers, and other weather folks. Using HTML forms, the user can search a comprehensive climate database to check sea surface temperature, wind speeds, sea level pressure, or other environmental variables. Enter your choice for view and time information, and the FERRET scientific analysis and visualization program coughs up the data for your review. Sounds great, if you're an oceanographer studying ocean temperatures along the equator or something. Otherwise, ...
Overall Rating: 17
Dermatology in the Cinema
URL: http://itsa.ucsf.edu/~vcr/Dermcin.html
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Brilliantly perverse! Dr. Vail Reese, a dermatologist, has compiled a resource on skin conditions featured in movie characters. For example, as Reese points out, movies use film disease to represent evil: Willem Dafoe's crystal clear complexion in Platoon vs. Tom Berenger's scars. You can even learn the official medical term for what caused W.C. Fields to have his trademark bulbous nose. Did you know Richard Gere has Becker's nevus on his shoulder? If I ever need a mole removed, I'm going to see Reese.
Overall Rating: 17
Girls on Film
URL: http://www.itp.tsoa.nyu.edu/~gof
Category: Film
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
For film fans that just can't deal with Siskel and Ebert, this site mixes poignancy and levity to offer a smart girl take on film and other cultural matters. Example: Start with a revealing article on movie rape scenes, glance at the Bad Coifs column to read about wrong hairstyles, and jump into the ocean of film reviews to really get into the celluloid mood. Lots of information and a definite attitude that has no online (or offline!) rival. Girls On Film is the old *Sassy* meets *Entertainment Tonight* at a *Bikini Kill* concert.
Overall Rating: 17
The Virtual Film Festival
URL: http://www.virtualfilm.com/
Category: Film
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Are you going to miss the schmoozing and screenings at your fave film festival this year? If so, the Virtual Film Fesitval may ease your misery. Chat rooms, film clips, press releases, and director dirt are all there for your viewing pleasure. (Indie filmmakers pay a small fee to promote their work online, but in that racket anything can help.) Since it launched last year, the VFF has reported from Berlin, Cannes, South by Southwest, and other biggies. Not a replacement for the real thing, but who can be everywhere at once? Of course, the best thing about a *virtual* film festival is that you can instantly turn it off without having to hide in your hotel room.
Overall Rating: 17
NrrdGrrl!
URL: http://www.winternet.com/~ameliaw
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Riot Nrrrds of the female persuasion, this site is for you! Join the ranks of Jan Brady, Janet Reno, Lisa Simpson, and other strong grrrls pictured on the NrrdGrrl home page. In fact, you don't even need to join--as the site says, "a NrrdGrrl! is any woman who wants to reclaim the meaning of the word normal. Because normal does not mean the same as everybody else!" Link to the pages of other modem grrrls pages, check out some of their ezines, and dig into Grrowl, the NrrdGrrl! Web zine. I laughed (and screamed) out loud at a true story of watching the Miss America Pageant in a dorm.
Overall Rating: 17
Gourmet Connection
URL: http://www.norwich.net/gourmet/link1.htm
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The name of this Web site doesn't tell the whole story. Yes, it's devoted to gourmet food, but more interesting is its focus on healthy gourmet food. Check out healthy recipes, nutrition information, and even a section called The Diabetic Gourmet. There's also plenty of useful culinary tidbits. Do you know how to prevent an apple's skin from wrinkling during baking? Find out in "Kitchen Tips and Healthful Hints." The feature article titles are great too! Examples: "Mad Cow Disease: A Sobering Wake Up Call" and "Parsley Isn't Just A Garnish." I'm hungry!
Overall Rating: 17
United Media
URL: http://www.unitedmedia.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Yet another reason not to buy a newspaper. Nancy, Robotman, Marmaduke, and the Peanuts gang are all hanging out on these funny pages for your online enjoyment! And who can do without Dilbert's travels in corporate hyperreality? There's even political cartoons by the likes of Steve Benson for the smart alecs out there. Check back daily and immerse yourself in the best of the daily comics, without all that news to distract you.
Overall Rating: 17
The Tech Museum of Science
URL: http://www.thetech.org
Category: Science
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, the Tech Museum of Innovation is a hands-on educational playpen where children and adults can learn how technology affects industry and everyday life. Naturally, their Web site is a fine piece of infotainment. Prepare to spend some time in the HyperTech online interactive exhibits: Enjoy an animated robot graphic before learning about their place in culture and science, then click onto the DNA double helix to find out about the instruction manual for life. And that's only the beginning of the scientific trek. The stated mission of The Tech is to "inspire young innovators." Job well done. Where's my soldering iron?
Overall Rating: 17
Illustrated Guide to Crackers
URL: http://mathlab.sunysb.edu/~elijah/cstuff/index.html
Category: Bizarre
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
While this site might be considered bizarre by some, cracker fans will find the information presented here as important as a good knife is for cutting cheese. A dozen or so crackers are pictured on the site, and a click on their image yields packaging information, suggested "dosage" (serving size), and ingredients. Missing, however, are calorie and fat content information! (A significant oversight in the case of peanut butter Ritz Bits!) Crumb-rating might be useful too, for those times when you're in bed jonesing for a saltine. Maybe you can post your experiences on the subject in the site's cracker forum. As Andy Griffith once said, "Mmmmm.... Good cracker!"
Overall Rating: 17
Discoverer's Web
URL: http://huizen.dds.nl/~engels/discovery/
Category: Humanities
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
What a task Andre Engels has undertaken! The goal of his text-only site is to "gather all kinds of information found on the web about voyages of discovery and exploration." And he is off to a heavy-duty start. Organized by time periods and geographic region, Discoverer's Web is a massive list of links to both FTP and Web resources devoted to everyone from Herodotus to Samuel de Champlain. Let's hope this man has a T-1 line.
Overall Rating: 17
Smirnoff's Pure Thrill
URL: http://www.purethrill.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Welcome to the Smirnoff Pure Thrill Hotel--a world of drinking, decadence, and death. This well-designed and thought-out bells-and-whistles site is based on the idea of a classy hotel, where you can meet the Rene the hotel manager, the scamming Countess, and a host of other characters involved in the murder that unfolds as you browse the site. Smirnoff has done an impressive job of creating content as opposed to just pushing product. The hook that brings you back? You have to visit periodically to find out whodunit.
Overall Rating: 17
Cybergrass
URL: http://www.banjo.com/BG/
Category: Music
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
In case you didn't guess from the domain name, Cybergrass is a Web 'zine about Bluegrass music. But more than just a magazine, Cybergrass is a Bluegrass clearinghouse--with classifieds, MIDI files, festival listings, and suggested reading lists. Meanwhile, the usual 'zine content of show reviews, editorials, and artists profiles are all written in a conversational, unpretentious tone that is, well, downright folksy. Serious fans should also check out the list of Bluegrass Associations to find a partner--it takes two to tango, after all, when you're playing Dueling Banjos.
Overall Rating: 17
Tripod
URL: http://www.tripod.com
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
If a Web magazine can be "slick," Tripod is it. According to their "about" page, "Tripod is for people trying to live well in a world of constant shift and transition." And for this 'zine, living well means negotiating an unpredictable career path, figuring out your finances and, of course, staying healthy. Easier said than done, those things. That's why Tripod kicks down information on everything from urinary tract infections to "boss-itis" (you know, becoming too big for your britches) to the political playpen. Add the tips on job hunting, resume refurbishing, and other practical tips for the "young upstanding citizen," and Tripod is both the Fortune and Fitness magazines for the Friends set.
Overall Rating: 17
Electronic Beowulf Project
URL: http://portico.bl.uk/access/beowulf/electronic-beowulf.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The original manuscript for Beowulf, the English masterpiece starring Grendel the monster, was badly damaged in a fire 200 years ago. Taking the remains out of its display case in the British Library for scholarly study is obviously not the best idea. But in a hint at the future of the library, we are given the Electronic Beowulf Project, focused on scanning and analyzing the parchment to create a complete digital version of the document for study. With tons of related research and articles being added constantly, the Electronic Beowulf Project is an example of electronic media's power to archive artifacts from the pre-digital era of the written word.
Overall Rating: 16
Jack Vance Archive
URL: http://www.hw.nl/~remy/
Category: Literature
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Fans of award-winning Sci Fi and Fantasy author Jack Vance will be in the Web world of their dreams after a visit to this site. The archive's comprehensive bibliography of Vance's published novels, short stories and collections is a much-needed resource for anyone familiar with the extremely prolific writer. Looking for a first edition of The Languages of Pao? A marketplace for rare Vance artifacts is under construction on the site and will surely be a welcome resource for the dedicated Vance collector, earthbound or otherwise.
Overall Rating: 16
Mark Richardson World
URL: http://www.mountain.net/hp/bluetic/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
This site *looks* busy, busy, busy. But basically, like most Vanity sites, it's filled with a whole lot of nothing. But at least ol' Mark's been keeping up with the Web wizardry tricks of the day. MIDI sound, ticker tape at the bottom of the page, tables and other nifty gimmicks demonstrate the latest in home page painting, even if the content is questionable. But why shouldn't it be? This is Mark's world, not your domain. For example, Mark has graciously installed links to Tia, Jim, Paul and his other pals' home pages. And I'm sure they appreciate it.
Overall Rating: 16
Gordon Hake's Basic HTML Tutorial
URL: http://hake.com/gordon/w3-index.html
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
If you don't like what you see online, you better be prepared to top it. And Gordon's put together a nice home for autodidactics itching to weave their own part of this Web. This site is a clear introduction to Web publishing, complete with links to other Web development resources online. Most of this tutorial is appropriated from other places, but the info is still all good. You won't find tips on how to include all the latest bells and whistles here, but that's of no matter for newbies. In the end, it's not glam and glitz but clear design and clean content that's the message of this new media. Start here.
Overall Rating: 16
Don't Spread that Hoax
URL: http://www.crew.umich.edu/~chymes/newusers/Think.html
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Don't send me anymore "Good Times Virus" e-mails or messages about some pitiful terminally ill kid trying to break the Guinness Book Record for receiving the most get-well cards! These net.memes, and others explained on this site, are not worth your time! They are hoaxes! Get it? Pranks! Thanks to Charles Hymes for devoting a page documenting this garbage and advising us to check our info before wasting bandwidth. This site is a must read for newbies susceptible to age old cons and Word viruses. Now remember, the Federal Government is not going to start charging for e-mail anytime soon! OK?
Overall Rating: 16
Macintosh WWW Resources
URL: http://www.comvista.com/net/www/WWWDirectory.html
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Look here for some good, and free, info from Com Vista, a net and Web consultant company. Their WWW Resource Directory is a one-stop shop for almost everything Mac-based surfers and designers need to explore to set up shop in Cyberspace. You'll get it all, from client-side audio apps and browsers to server software and CGI tools. Some of the tools are even reviewed to help you choose your apps wisely. A good bookmark to keep handy when lurking, or decorating.
Overall Rating: 16
GraphComp's VRML Tools Review
URL: http://www.graphcomp.com/vrml/review.html
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
As we wait for VRML to catch on, new browsers are popping up that claim to be the best for exploring 3D worlds on the Web. The VRML Tools Review from Graphcomp, a graphical software development company, is a clean and well-organized comparison chart of the latest VRML apps to hit the net. Snapshots of a site seen through each browser are a striking complement to the chart -- and there *is* a big difference between the presentations of VR Scout and the oft-hyped WebSpace. Look here first so you don't waste your downloading dollar on below-par VRML applications.
Overall Rating: 16
Black Harlequin Space
URL: http://www.peg.apc.org/~agarton/bhspace.html
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Black Harlequin is..... ummmm.... a "new media opera." At least that's what they call this artsy collection of images, music, and words. And who am I to argue? I say kudos to these artists for pushing the envelope. While the music (Real Audio and Wav files) and poetry isn't especially cutting-edge, the creator's philosophy about using a text-free graphical interface to navigate the site is a step in the non-linearity direction of true new media. While you still may be drawn to the URL at the bottom of the browser to find your bearings, at least this approach is more creative than simply hammering out new "back" and "forward" buttons.
Overall Rating: 16
MSARP Virtual Slide Show
URL: http://www.ucalgary.ca/UofC/faculties/SS/ARKY/show/showintro.html
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
No, not your neighbor's Florida vacation photos, but images of archaeological research in the Canadian High Arctic. Clear and impressive images of a house excavation and metal artifacts like bone needles are examples of the nearly two dozen server-pushed JPEGs in the show. You can even loop samples of Inuit Throat Singing or ambient environmental sounds to get you more into the Arctic mood. A fine use of the technology, but nothing interactive except a chance to ooh and ahh at the sometimes snowy landscape. Just like a grammar school slide show -- only slower. Guess you had to be there.
Overall Rating: 16
QWorld
URL: http://www.qworld.org/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
QWorld is a well-organized forum for the queer community, complete with chat rooms, message boards, and regional resources of lesbian and gay businesses in your area. For a good time, check out the QFiles filled with Lesbian and Gay graphics icons, sounds and other relevant resources. Once you're ready to journey out of QWorld, the massive collection of links will help you follow the rainbow streaming through the net. While the site is still under construction, it has the potential to be a bustling virtual town square for digital queers.
Overall Rating: 16
Cafe Los Negroes
URL: http://www.losnegroes.com/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Billed as the net's Black and Latino hangout, Cafe' Los Negroes is flowing with cultural cred. Dig the frequent special events in the Cafe', like an online panel discussion with Ntzoke Shange, Vernon Reid, and Lisa Jones, or groove on the Cybirdland live jazz broadcasts. You can also check out regular features like art in the Bedstuy virtual gallery, currently show casing New York including Daniel Simmons and Michael Chambers, and download beats from singer-songwriter Toshi Reagon or spoken word from poet Adrian Castro. Cleanly designer and rich with the flavor of the New York Underground.
Overall Rating: 16
The Terrorist Profile Weekly
URL: http://www.site.gmu.edu/~cdibona/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Chris DiBona, a college student and employee of the US Department of State's Office of Information Management in the Bureau of Administration, has provided us a collection of profiles surveying more than twenty terrorist organizations around the globe. Learn about all the baddies from the 15 May Organization to the Popular Struggle Front. Each profile includes a general description, activities, strength, ideals, and location of the group all taken from the US State Department's journal "The Profiles of Global Terrorism." The site banner reads "Your 100% recommended daily allowance of global terror," and I personally wouldn't want to overdose.
Overall Rating: 16
EPA & Ozone Depletion
URL: http://www.epa.gov/docs/ozone/index.html
Category: Science
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
New technology obviously won't do us much good if there's no ozone layer to prevent us from being burnt to a crisp. This site offers information running the gamut from overviews and layman's explanations to detailed scientific studies on ozone depletion and related US regulations. Worthy of a read is the tips on how to protect yourself and your children from UV radiation. Sunglasses help, but just aren't enough anymore. Help save yourself and the atmosphere: Stay away from those tanning beds (they're cheesy anyway) and just say no to hair spray in a can!
Overall Rating: 16
10 Things Jesus Wants You to Know
URL: http://weber.u.washington.edu/~ten/
Category: Music
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Not a bible-bouncer's home page, but a rad Washington-based punk 'zine. The list of upcoming shows in the Pacific Northwest, including basement and garage gigs, makes me yearn for the pit, while interviews with the Jesus Lizard, The Melvins, and Ward beckon me to the record store. With 10 Things' fresh design, clear navigation, and fine 'zine-quality writing, hardcore indie music fans couldn't ask for more. As punk continues to be pulled into the mainstream, this 'zine is one to watch.
Overall Rating: 16
Sonic State
URL: http://www.sonicstate.com
Category: Music
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
With a fine British sense of streetwise humor a la the New Music Express, Sonic State is something of a cross between a hip music fan 'zine and an irreverent industry resource. Much fun is the directory to rock and roll hotels, from the Chelsea to the Chateau Marmont and across the world. Big Wig wanna-bes will also enjoy determining the fate of rising (or falling) acts in the "Let's Play A & R Game." MTV Online should take a look at this site. A close look.
Overall Rating: 16
Dance To The Sound Of A Suicide
URL: http://hamp.hampshire.edu/~temS95/gothic.html
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Yes, we're talking Goths here--black eyeliner, Bauhaus, black hair, Bela Lugosi (is dead), black clothes, etc. But I grew up on the Sisters of Mercy and Christian Death, so there's always a place in my heart for children of the night. Especially this one! Tara Morrison has a sense of humor, something lacking in most gloom and doom types. "I don't drink blood. And I don't want to," she writes in one of many stabs at the hyper-pretentiousness and absurd fantasization so typical in goth culture. This page is primarily an annotated list of goth sites on the Net--Bauhaus pages, Anne Rice resources, etc. But Tara's wry, no-bullshit attitude makes this site more interesting than almost anything she links to. Tara, will you meet me in the cemetery some night?
Overall Rating: 16
Pun Yin Metaphysics
URL: http://plaza.interport.net/pymetaphysics/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
This site is dedicated to the ancient study of Feng Shui, the historic Chinese discipline of "manipulating the invisible and subtle energies of the cosmos, or 'Chi,' to create harmony between man and his environment." This is some heavy stuff actually, dealing with the placement of objects and buildings in their "most auspicious positions" and the use of specific colors for "balance." (Example: Seeing your stove when you first walk inside creates bad energy). For a few hundred dollars, Master Pun Yin will look at blueprints and photos of your home or office (if it's in New York), and give a Feng Shui analysis. Maybe true, maybe hoax or superstition, but damned interesting.
Overall Rating: 16
Black Harlequin Space
URL: http://www.peg.apc.org/~agarton/bhspace.html
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Black Harlequin is..... ummmm.... a "new media opera." At least that's what they call this artsy collection of images, music, and words. And who am I to argue? I say kudos to these artists for pushing the envelope. While the music (Real Audio and Wav files) and poetry isn't especially cutting-edge, the creator's philosophy about using a text-free graphical interface to navigate the site is a step in the non-linearity direction of true new media. While you still may be drawn to the URL at the bottom of the browser to find your bearings, at least this approach is more creative than simply hammering out new "back" and "forward" buttons.
Overall Rating: 16
MSARP Virtual Slide Show
URL: http://www.ucalgary.ca/UofC/faculties/SS/ARKY/show/showintro.html
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
No, not your neighbor's Florida vacation photos, but images of archaeological research in the Canadian High Arctic. Clear and impressive images of a house excavation and metal artifacts like bone needles are examples of the nearly two dozen server-pushed JPEGs in the show. You can even loop samples of Inuit Throat Singing or ambient environmental sounds to get you more into the Arctic mood. A fine use of the technology, but nothing interactive except a chance to ooh and ahh at the sometimes snowy landscape. Just like a grammar school slide show -- only slower. Guess you had to be there.
Overall Rating: 16
QWorld
URL: http://www.qworld.org/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
QWorld is a well-organized forum for the queer community, complete with chat rooms, message boards, and regional resources of lesbian and gay businesses in your area. For a good time, check out the QFiles filled with Lesbian and Gay graphics icons, sounds and other relevant resources. Once you're ready to journey out of QWorld, the massive collection of links will help you follow the rainbow streaming through the net. While the site is still under construction, it has the potential to be a bustling virtual town square for digital queers.
Overall Rating: 16
Cafe Los Negroes
URL: http://www.losnegroes.com/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Billed as the net's Black and Latino hangout, Cafe' Los Negroes is flowing with cultural cred. Dig the frequent special events in the Cafe', like an online panel discussion with Ntzoke Shange, Vernon Reid, and Lisa Jones, or groove on the Cybirdland live jazz broadcasts. You can also check out regular features like art in the Bedstuy virtual gallery, currently show casing New York including Daniel Simmons and Michael Chambers, and download beats from singer-songwriter Toshi Reagon or spoken word from poet Adrian Castro. Cleanly designer and rich with the flavor of the New York Underground.
Overall Rating: 16
The Terrorist Profile Weekly
URL: http://www.site.gmu.edu/~cdibona/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Chris DiBona, a college student and employee of the US Department of State's Office of Information Management in the Bureau of Administration, has provided us a collection of profiles surveying more than twenty terrorist organizations around the globe. Learn about all the baddies from the 15 May Organization to the Popular Struggle Front. Each profile includes a general description, activities, strength, ideals, and location of the group all taken from the US State Department's journal "The Profiles of Global Terrorism." The site banner reads "Your 100% recommended daily allowance of global terror," and I personally wouldn't want to overdose.
Overall Rating: 16
EPA & Ozone Depletion
URL: http://www.epa.gov/docs/ozone/index.html
Category: Science
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
New technology obviously won't do us much good if there's no ozone layer to prevent us from being burnt to a crisp. This site offers information running the gamut from overviews and layman's explanations to detailed scientific studies on ozone depletion and related US regulations. Worthy of a read is the tips on how to protect yourself and your children from UV radiation. Sunglasses help, but just aren't enough anymore. Help save yourself and the atmosphere: Stay away from those tanning beds (they're cheesy anyway) and just say no to hair spray in a can!
Overall Rating: 16
Voyager Guerrilla Girls
URL: http://www.voyagerco.com/gg/
Category: Political
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
For almost a decade, the Guerrilla Girls have been wheat-pasting healthy doses of post-feminist modernist agit-prop onto buildings, poles, and the minds of the world. Using their trademark creative approach of targeting sexism, physical abuse, and any "boys club" that emerges with irony and DTP, the Guerrilla Girls have risen to the New Media occasion with this Web site.The site is a clean, elegant archive of their posters -- political art that also serves as a catalog of this decade's fight for women's equality. As their slogan states, the Guerrilla Girls "could be anyone. We are everywhere." Be ready.
Overall Rating: 16
New World Media Digital Alternative Media
URL: http://www.worldmedia.com/
Category: Political
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The work of Noam Chomsky, dissident, semanticist, media analyst, and all-around smart guy, is the basis for this page. Abundant on the site are theories about using digital tools to generate and spread content while circumventing the big boy media playground. Also worth your time is an interactive version of Chomsky's classic "Manufacturing Consent" and a quick scan of the comprehensive Chomsky archives. The anarchists behind this digital curtain are ready to undermine mainstream agendas using their enemy's own methods of media manipulation. As William Gibson wrote in Neuromancer, "the street finds its own use for things."
Overall Rating: 16
WWS World
URL: http://www.wwsworld.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Morphing to the needs of the new media, advertising agencies are rushing to create Web sites to lure in even the most technophobic clients. Weiss, Whitten, Stagliano's site does the job nicely. Fun in a marketing company sort of way, yet elegant in a "we mean business" professional appearance, this site is a no-apologies commercial for the abilities of this agency. With examples of its work for Giorgio Armani and Ferrari, this agency shows that it can walk the production walk just as well as it talks the Web talk. A worthy look at a good example from the industry that will help commercialize the net... whether we like it or not.
Overall Rating: 16
Digital Equipment Corporation
URL: http://www.digital.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Home to Alta Vista, easily the best search engine of the Web, DEC continues as a force to be reckoned with in the computer world. Here you'll find the usual material from a high-tech corp's Web site -- a letter from the big cheese, product info, and plenty of press releases for analysts and consultants. But if you're not a journalist hunting for background, a corporation with an equipment budget to blow, or a tech-head looking for work, go ahead and bookmark Alta Vista and leave the rest alone. The engine from heaven is hidden in the New Technology and Research section.
Overall Rating: 16
Electronic Beowulf Project
URL: http://portico.bl.uk/access/beowulf/electronic-beowulf.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The original manuscript for Beowulf, the English masterpiece starring Grendel the monster, was badly damaged in a fire 200 years ago. Taking the remains out of its display case in the British Library for scholarly study is obviously not the best idea. But in a hint at the future of the library, we are given the Electronic Beowulf Project, focused on scanning and analyzing the parchment to create a complete digital version of the document for study. With tons of related research and articles being added constantly, the Electronic Beowulf Project is an example of electronic media's power to archive artifacts from the pre-digital era of the written word.
Overall Rating: 16
Jack Vance Archive
URL: http://www.hw.nl/~remy/
Category: Literature
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Fans of award-winning Sci Fi and Fantasy author Jack Vance will be in the Web world of their dreams after a visit to this site. The archive's comprehensive bibliography of Vance's published novels, short stories and collections is a much-needed resource for anyone familiar with the extremely prolific writer. Looking for a first edition of The Languages of Pao? A marketplace for rare Vance artifacts is under construction on the site and will surely be a welcome resource for the dedicated Vance collector, earthbound or otherwise.
Overall Rating: 16
Thee Joker's Funhouse
URL: http://www.escape.com/~joker/
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
First of all, hacking was not just an 80s teen fetish that ended when the Legion of Doom went to jail and Shimomura nailed Mitnick. It's alive and well in many basements and high school computer labs, which still follow the maxim that "information wants to be free." This site is a basic guide to phone phreaking and hacking resources on the Web. Although a bit young, and riddled with an annoying amount of slang, Thee Joker's Funhouse is a fine starting point if you want an introduction to the questionable activities of those lurking on the lines. Remember, though: If the phone company calls, deny owning one.
Overall Rating: 16
Mark Richardson World
URL: http://www.mountain.net/hp/bluetic/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
This site *looks* busy, busy, busy. But basically, like most Vanity sites, it's filled with a whole lot of nothing. But at least ol' Mark's been keeping up with the Web wizardry tricks of the day. MIDI sound, ticker tape at the bottom of the page, tables and other nifty gimmicks demonstrate the latest in home page painting, even if the content is questionable. But why shouldn't it be? This is Mark's world, not your domain. For example, Mark has graciously installed links to Tia, Jim, Paul and his other pals' home pages. And I'm sure they appreciate it.
Overall Rating: 16
Gordon Hake's Basic HTML Tutorial
URL: http://hake.com/gordon/w3-index.html
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
If you don't like what you see online, you better be prepared to top it. And Gordon's put together a nice home for autodidactics itching to weave their own part of this Web. This site is a clear introduction to Web publishing, complete with links to other Web development resources online. Most of this tutorial is appropriated from other places, but the info is still all good. You won't find tips on how to include all the latest bells and whistles here, but that's of no matter for newbies. In the end, it's not glam and glitz but clear design and clean content that's the message of this new media. Start here.
Overall Rating: 16
Don't Spread that Hoax
URL: http://www.crew.umich.edu/~chymes/newusers/Think.html
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Don't send me anymore "Good Times Virus" e-mails or messages about some pitiful terminally ill kid trying to break the Guinness Book Record for receiving the most get-well cards! These net.memes, and others explained on this site, are not worth your time! They are hoaxes! Get it? Pranks! Thanks to Charles Hymes for devoting a page documenting this garbage and advising us to check our info before wasting bandwidth. This site is a must read for newbies susceptible to age old cons and Word viruses. Now remember, the Federal Government is not going to start charging for e-mail anytime soon! OK?
Overall Rating: 16
Macintosh WWW Resources
URL: http://www.comvista.com/net/www/WWWDirectory.html
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Look here for some good, and free, info from Com Vista, a net and Web consultant company. Their WWW Resource Directory is a one-stop shop for almost everything Mac-based surfers and designers need to explore to set up shop in Cyberspace. You'll get it all, from client-side audio apps and browsers to server software and CGI tools. Some of the tools are even reviewed to help you choose your apps wisely. A good bookmark to keep handy when lurking, or decorating.
Overall Rating: 16
GraphComp's VRML Tools Review
URL: http://www.graphcomp.com/vrml/review.html
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
As we wait for VRML to catch on, new browsers are popping up that claim to be the best for exploring 3D worlds on the Web. The VRML Tools Review from Graphcomp, a graphical software development company, is a clean and well-organized comparison chart of the latest VRML apps to hit the net. Snapshots of a site seen through each browser are a striking complement to the chart -- and there *is* a big difference between the presentations of VR Scout and the oft-hyped WebSpace. Look here first so you don't waste your downloading dollar on below-par VRML applications.
Overall Rating: 16
COLD FUSION TIMES HOME PAGE
URL: http://world.std.com/~mica/cft.html
Category: Science
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Believe it or not. Ever the skeptic I chose the latter, but I'm still interested in exploring the fringes of scientific thought. And it's hard to argue with the site's main assertion: "Cold Fusion is important because even if there is only 1/10 of 1% possibility of its reality, given its low expense and ubiquity,...its safety...and its impact..., it must be investigated." For those with the time, this cleanly-designed journal is the place to begin your investigation into research papers, conference proceedings, and a development timeline.
Overall Rating: 16
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
URL: http://www.fnal.gov/fermilab_home.html
Category: Science
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Fermilab is home to the Tevatron, the most hardcore particle accelerator in the world. In fact, Fermilab is where the Top Quark was discovered last year. (Score one for Big Science!) No need to worry if you missed that news in high-energy physics. Click here for a clear and interesting explanation of what the hell atom smashing is all about, why you should care, and what's next on the particle physics horizon. A graphically bland but scientifically profound site.
Overall Rating: 16
WebCastro
URL: http://www.webcastro.com/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
San Francisco's Castro district has been called the Gay Mecca, and this virtual community does a fine job representing the eclectic and exciting real community that is Castro. WebCastro is filled with calendars, a history of the neighborhood, profiles of unusual and interesting Castro characters, guides to area businesses and community-service organizations. Yet the site still barely scratches the surface of the neighborhood. Basically, you gotta live there. But if you don't, at least check out the scene virtually. Slightly cluttered, but easily navigable and educational.
Overall Rating: 16
SB's Breakin' Page
URL: http://weber.u.washington.edu/~bock/bd/bd.html
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Pop it, rock it, lock it, and break it. Yes Turbo, breakdancing has come to the Web. Download that Afrika Bambaata AU file, or any of the multitude of old-school samples on the site, trip on some graffiti from back-in-the-day, and try to hit that windmill like Crazy Legs in Beat Street. (Check the video clip if you've forgotten.) Once you practice the moves, throw on your parachute pants and Pumas with the fat laces, and come down to the corner. Just don't be wack and forget your cardboard. (Lost? See the site for the definition of "wack" and other breakin' terminology.)
Overall Rating: 16
The Original Roughstock
URL: http://www.ossinc.net/roughstock/
Category: Music
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
I enjoy country music. And before you start making jokes about ten gallon hats and Garth Brooks, you better check out this site. Country-western is as much a subculture as punk rock or hip-hop. In fact, judging from this site it might even be more interesting. Alphabetized images and info about rodeos, Willie Nelson, Clint Black, and a multitude of other country fixtures make me want to buy some boot-cut Wranglers and become a ranch hand. As you read the History of Country Music you too will learn that there's a lot of heart and soul in this oft-joked about lifestyle, even if Garth is affiliated.
Overall Rating: 16
The Deoxyribonucleic Hyperdimension
URL: http://www.intac.com/~dimitri/dh/deoxy.html
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
This is *the* site for budding psychedelic shamans eager to meet the elves that visit us from hyperspace at our most "open" moments. Take a puff on that DMT-filled pipe and click here. Immerse yourself in the hallucinogen-inspired (and hyperbole-filled?) wisdom of Terrence McKenna, ethnobotanist of the next millennium. Let John Lilly introduce you to his dolphin, Peter, that "speaks" English, then allow ex-Mondo 2000 pillars Gracie and Zarkov to take you on another Tryptamine trip. And last but certainly not least, ingest a healthy dose of optimism with the good doctor Timothy Leary. Turn on, tune in, and take over.
Overall Rating: 16
Ecstasy.org
URL: http://ecstasy.org/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
This site's creator, Nicholas Saunders, is the author of the well-received *E for Ecstasy*, and an expanded version of that fine text called *Ecstasy and the Dance Culture*. Whether you partake in the love drug or not, any rave/cyberculture info-seeker will dig Saunders' collection of studies related to MDMA and background on Ecstasy research around the world. (Also, the cheesy/cool animated GIF banner is worth a stare.) How toxic is E? You may be surprised, actually. Check here for details. And no, MDMA does not drain you of spinal fluids. But drinking lots of water will not solve all your problems either.
Overall Rating: 16
The Bionomics Institute
URL: http://www.bionomics.org/
Category: Science
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Forget that old "the economy is a machine" rap. The Bionomics folks liken the economy to an "evolving ecosystem" where each specialized company "works to survive in its market niche just as each individual organism works to survive in its ecological niche." Interesting right? With the book Bionomics by Michael Rothschild as its bible, the Institute hosts conferences, archives related material, and, basically, spreads the word. Here you can check out the preface of Bionomics, read articles about the concepts, and drop some cash for informational tapes. (Using Cybercash!) Bionomics is a meme to watch.
Overall Rating: 16
Rich Signell's Professional Page
URL: http://crusty.er.usgs.gov/rsignell.html
Category: Science
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Dr. Richard Signell is an oceanographer with the US Geological Survey, and even if you're not a scientist, his work seems pretty darned exciting. Some of the data can only be accessed by USGS machines, but then again, I wouldn't know what to make of that stuff anyway. Signell's beautifully animated simulations of the push and pull of the ocean is enough for me. (The clips are in Autodesk FLC format, rather than MPEG, allowing for much faster playback.) Especially trippy is the simulation of the upwelling in Massachusetts Bay during June of 1990. Much more interesting than watching my toilet flush.
Overall Rating: 16
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
URL: http://www.whoi.edu/
Category: Science
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
This Web locale for the country's largest indie oceanographic institute contains a wealth of information on all areas of marine research, including ocean physics, biology, and chemistry. Besides WHO's own research reports, oceanographic aficionados can drown in the searchable Mariner Library System and check out the specs on WHO's research vessels, from the DSV Alvin submersible to the 279-foot Knorr, apparently one of the largest academic research ships in the US.
Overall Rating: 16
Ask the Dietician
URL: http://www.hoptechno.com/rdindex.htm
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Registered dietitcian Joanne Larsen knows her four food groups and then some. In this simple but effective site, you can read questions and Larsen's intelligent and helpful answers about vegetarianism, alcohol, fiber intake, and dozens of other diet-related topics. You can even email your own food query to her. My favorite question so far: " I'm hearing a lot about junk food lately. No one has given a definition of what foods are junk. Can you give me a list of junk foods?" Larsen's response is detailed and revealing. And yes, gum *is* a food, and a junky one at that.
Overall Rating: 16
Duckman
URL: http://www.duckman.com
Category: Media
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
This Shockwave-enhanced online home to the webbed creature who lives in TV land has just enough "multimedia" to satisfy Duckman addicts until the next episode. Click from page to Shocked page for a Duckman fix as you explore this virtual cartoon with dozens of different scenes. Well-designed and a fine demonstration of Shockwave, but content only a Duckfan would love.
Overall Rating: 16
UW Fish Collection
URL: http://artedi.fish.washington.edu
Category: Science
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The UW Fish Collection is part of the University of Washington's School of Fisheries. With over 230,000 fish in their collection, this Web site has plenty of support for its databases and ichthyological resources. Make sure you take a peek at the Featured Fish of the month. When I looked, Axoclinus Carminalis was in the spotlight. Sure beats a goldfish. By the way, if you happen to find a strange looking fish washed up on the beach, you can take it to the Fish Collection for identification. Freeze it first though--directions are on the site. Nobody likes a smelly dead fish.
Overall Rating: 16
Eclectica
URL: http://www.netwizards.net/~zeno/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Some people create so-called "vanity pages." Others build Web pages to showcase their talents in a chaotic art world where money is thrown around but caught only by a select few. Jonathan Yeong is one of those frustated talents who uses the Web as a global resume board. Here, explore clean and elegant pages with essays about Jonathan's relationship to art and design, all beautifully presented as a showcase for his work. How psitively meta. Exquisitely designed. Someone offer this guy a job.
Overall Rating: 16
Noah's Place
URL: http://noahs-place.com/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Lots of the usual--Simpsons sound files, shareware games, and quite a few links (even a random link generator). But there's more! Newbies will dig the "People Who Like Getting Email" section. Read a person's description and drop them a line. Or post your own 100 word ad for $2 a month. Another interesting item is Noah's anonymous email form. In fact, I wonder if you can use the anonymous remailer to sign someone *else* up to be a penpal. For example, list your boss as a 14-year-old boy who loves Beavis and Butt-head and enjoys receiving nude celebrity JPEGs. That'd be good for a couple of laughs, eh?
Overall Rating: 16
Toshiba
URL: http://www.toshiba.com
Category: Corporate
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The Web sites of consumer electronics companies are often boring, but useful. True, there's usually not much "entertainment" content, but electronics shopping is one area where new product information and spec sheets can be extremely helpful. If you're in the market for Toshiba goods, check here first. But you'll probably want to skip Club Toshiba, where you cough up demographic information in exchange for member percs like access to hourly news updates, and a Toshiba e-news letter. Whoopee. On the other hand, customization, like the ability to create your own Club Toshiba home page, is always an interesting Web fillip. But when in a rush, let this site do what it does best--help you become an informed shopper.
Overall Rating: 16
AT&T
URL: http://www.att.com
Category: Corporate
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Ever heard of information overload? The AT&T home page is packed full of linked text in a small font, so you're best bet is to proceed directly to the site map to get a finger on where you need to be--product info, telecommuting information, wireless telecom, etc. Several levels deep, you'll find lots of interesting information about telecommunications products and research. My favorite area to browse is the AT&T Bell Labs R and D area. Did you know there's already a prototype of Dick Tracy's wrist telephone?
Overall Rating: 16
Letraset Online
URL: http://www.letraset.com/letraset/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Letraset is the graphic design imprint of the international company, Esselte, the people behind those fun Dymo label guns. Here, you can browse dozens of fonts, clip art, and background textures before contacting your Letraset dealer to drop some cash. A cool tool on the site is The Ripper--a script that enables you to type in a headline, choose a point size, and render your text using any of the Letraset fonts. I always like to try before I buy. Another fun gimme is the free font of the month--yours after you complete an easy multiple choice test about Letraset products.
Overall Rating: 16
Monsanto
URL: http://www.monsanto.com/index.shtml
Category: Corporate
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Based in St. Louis, Monsanto is a huge biotechnology company working in the areas of medicine, agriculture, fiber, and food ingredients. Basically, they engineer products that we eat and wear. With that kind of responsibility, it's wise for Monsanto to create a positive and calm corporate identity, as they do at the Web site. Relaxing images of forests, farmland, and small animals actually work well here. (Without a cheesy aftertaste!) Learn about Monsanto's herbicides, engineered plant seeds, medicinal concoctions, and other ways in which they've messed with Mother Nature. Biotech is the future--meet one of the major players.
Overall Rating: 16
WXYC Chapel Hill
URL: http://sunsite.unc.edu/wxyc/
Category: Media
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
From alternamusic-rich Chapel Hill, comes the sounds of WXYC, a very hip radio station that's dug its heels deep into the net. Since 1994, WXYC has been a Web radio station, first using CU-SeeMe and now simulcasting with impressive Xing Streamworks. More information could be included on the site (band profiles? Chapel Hill hang-out scene reports?), but minimalism has its merits. Tune into the new wired sounds from last year's Gavin College Station of the Year and experience eclectica at its finest.
Overall Rating: 16
Family Photo Historian
URL: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/2878/
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
I've never been into shooting snapshots. I'm the type that would just end up with stacks of envelopes from the photo lab piled into untidy, disorganized heaps never to be viewed coherently again. But if you want to learn how to preserve and organize family photos, this is a fine place to begin the task. After all, this site's creator, Pam Motown, does this for a living as a professional photo historian. Look here each week for a tip on how to preserve and maintain your collection. By the way, photo albums aren't the end-all answer--acid in the pages will gradually disintegrate your pictures.
Overall Rating: 16
ShuffleBrain
URL: http://ezinfo.ucs.indiana.edu/~pietsch/
Category: Science
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Open your mind as you float through this Indiana University professor's site devoted to the nature of intelligence, perception, thought, and other aspects of gray matter. Check here for mind-blowing information on hologramic theory, which explains why "stored mind is not a thing. It is abstract relationships produced by things." Very deep and thought-provoking reading. The articles are understandable, although some are quite dense (it is science, after all). But there's no doubt in my mind that ShuffleBrain will entrance all psychonauts.
Overall Rating: 16
Hobbyist
URL: http://www.eskimo.com/~billb/
Category: Science
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Meet the Mr. Wizard of the Web, Bill Beaty. Beaty is determined to turn on kids of all ages to the amazing world of science. Demonstrations, explanations, experiments, links, and fringe talk of anti-gravity, free energy, and other weird science are yours to explore in this online laboratory. In fact, Beaty also runs the engrossing home page for Nikola Tesla, the genius mad scientist/inventor of alternating current. A gift to nrrrds online. Hey Bill, where I can get a *really* big capacitor for that Tesla Coil?
Overall Rating: 16
Marine Biological Laboratory
URL: http://www.mbl.edu/
Category: Science
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The Marine Biological Laboratory, the hotbed of aquatic research from Woods Hole, Massachusetts, is an educational and research institution dedicated to the study of marine life. Their site is anything but shallow. Take a dip into their live marine specimen database, with information about hundreds of fish and marine plants. Then pay a visit to the Mariner Online Library for a good example of how useful scientific journals can be digitized and made accessible via the Net. Those things combined with MBL course lists, research background information, and good links, makes for a sea of aquatic information.
Overall Rating: 16
Lip Balm Anonymous
URL: http://members.aol.com/LipBalmA/index.html
Category: Bizarre
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
And I thought I was the only one! Start your recovery here with the proven Twelve Step method. Principle #1 is "We admitted we were powerless over lip balm -- that our lives had become unmanageable." Learn all about the evil industry of addiction, from Carmex to Blistex, and help fight the insidious dependency. Something eating at you? Ask Lip Balm Anonymous. One troubled soul wanted to know if Vaseline counted as lip balm. (It does.) All the support you need is right here, friends. Hello, my name is Suzie, and I'm addicted to chapstick.
Overall Rating: 16
Harry Shearer
URL: http://www.pobox.com/harry/
Category: Entertainment
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Visit the wacky home page of Harry Shearer, comedian and host of Le Show on NPR. Filled with character impersonations and sketches, political humor, readings from bizarre magazines, and eclectic musical interludes, Le Show is absolute ear candy. And for those of you who have given up on radio as a dead media, you'll recognize Shearer as the hyper-talented voice behind The Simpsons' Mr. Burns, Smithers, Principal Skinner, Reverend Lovejoy, Ned Flanders... do I need to keep going? Even if you're not a fan of Le Show, it's hard not to find something of comedic attraction on this site. (The Simpsons sound samples are not to be missed.)
Overall Rating: 16
AT&T Business Network
URL: http://www.bnet.att.com/
Category: Finance
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Today, high-tech communication is obviously an integral part of big business. Always striving to be out in front of the competition, AT&T provides this directory of business resources online. Divided into sections like Industry, News, Management, and Government, the Business Network is a rich list of links covering every element of the business world. Kudos to AT&T for posting intelligently-written annotations so you don't waste too much time poking around for what you want. One drawback, however, is that the site is organized in so much detail, it can take almost a half-dozen clicks to get into the depths where the links actually dwell.
Overall Rating: 16
MacTutor History of Mathematics
URL: http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/
Category: Humanities
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Number crunchers take note: the MacTutor History of Mathematics from the School of Mathematical and Computational Sciences University of St. Andrews in Scotland is a comprehensive guide to the fascinating (seriously!) history of mathematics. Check out bios of more than 1000 famous mathematicians by name or time period, deep background on the development of important mathematical ideas, and even articles about famous curves. The Devil's Curve is my fave, although I don't remember it from high school. I knew I should have taken Calculus.
Overall Rating: 16
Petbird.com
URL: http://www.upatsix.com/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
I never understood the appeal of pet birds. They pretty much just hang out on a little swing, crap all over the place, and sing if you're lucky. But who am I to judge? For many, pet birds are the cat's meow, and this site is for them. Read up on cockatiel breeding and genetics and Finch care. Avian professionals are all over this site offering wise words about your bird's needs. There's even a section on aviculture called F.Y.I, with a fun article on how to prepare your bird for a show. (For one, file their beaks if necessary.) Tired of your Whiteface cockatiel hen? Find a buyer in the Petbird classified section. And of course, buy your birdseed online from one of the merchants on the site.
Overall Rating: 16
International Saxophone Home
URL: http://www.saxophone.org/
Category: Music
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
A combination magazine, clearinghouse, and buying guide, the International Saxophone Home Page is *the* most happening place online for horn players. Read an interview with Steve Coleman before trying out "Close Multiphonic Harmonies For Alto Saxophone." Then, click to the "Vintage Saxophone Page" for a history of Selmer Saxophones, or play a game that tests your vintage sax knowledge. Well-maintained with lots of content and no signs of hot air. Or Kenny G.
Overall Rating: 16
Ring of Truth
URL: http://www.webring.org/rot/
Category: Religion
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The Web Ring is a conceptual method of grouping together links to Web sites that have similar content. The premise: Get sent to a random link in the ring from a Ring of Truth home page, and click "next link" or "previous link" from that site, and so on... Eventually, you'll have traveled the ring and be back at the site where you started. Rings can have any theme and the Ring of Truth "seeks to open people's eyes to the world they are faced with instead of cowering in fear behind religious dogma and superstition." Hmmmm... Simply put, the theme seems to be underground culture with a gothic/industrial/dark bent. Should have guessed--the Webmaster quotes Nine Inch Nails on the Ring of Truth home page.
Overall Rating: 16
Alaska Volcano Observatory Observatory http://www.avo.alaska.edu/ Science 1196 7/10/96 2 2 2 A collaborative project from the United States Geological Survey, the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, and the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys, the Alaska Volcano Observatory is a window onto some 40 active volcanoes in the 49th state. Text, maps and satellite images are online for study but most exciting are the weekly updates measuring seismic activity. If you live near any of those volcanoes, this information is probably more than just a fun thing to glance at--when the update shows a "Red" concern color code, you're advised to get the hell out of the way. David Pescovitz
URL: http://www.avo.alaska.edu/
Category: Science
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
A collaborative project from the United States Geological Survey, the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, and the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys, the Alaska Volcano Observatory is a window onto some 40 active volcanoes in the 49th state. Text, maps and satellite images are online for study but most exciting are the weekly updates measuring seismic activity. If you live near any of those volcanoes, this information is probably more than just a fun thing to glance at--when the update shows a "Red" concern color code, you're advised to get the hell out.
Overall Rating: 16
The Crest Guide
URL: http://solstice.crest.org/online/aeguide/index.html
Category: Science
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Crest is the Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology, and their site is a comprehensive guide to sustainable energy resources on the Internet. As expendable resources--like oil--are being depleted, solar, biomass, wind, and hydropower will become our power source. Rather than waiting until the Energizer Bunny winds to a halt, you may as well learn about the progress in these areas right now. Let's face it, solar energy didn't go out of style with Jimmy Carter and mirrored sunglasses. Tomorrow, it may provide the juice for your computer.
Overall Rating: 16
Black and Decker
URL: http://www.blackanddecker.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
I bought my first drill this year. And it's a Black and Decker. Of course, B and D and American males go together like baseball and popcorn, so stop here if you want to see the company's most-impressive tool box. There's plenty of product info, a few contests, and even detailed plans on how to build your own furniture--including a computer desk! I knew that Black and Decker Router would come in handy someday.
Overall Rating: 16
The Biz
URL: http://bizmag.com
Category: Entertainment
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
From our global-domination seeking friends at Time Warner's Pathfinder, comes The Biz: The Entertainment CyberNetwork, a full-force entertainment rag for the Web. Offering hourly Variety and Reuters news, The Biz is worth checking out periodically for some Hollywood dirt. And once Entertainment Tonight is over, you can turn here for interviews with stars ("Anthony Hopkins Survives Picasso", for example) and a series of music columns divided by genre. P.S.: Kudos to The Biz for naming their advertising industry section "Advertainment." That's a meme to spread!
Overall Rating: 16
Buzz Online
URL: http://www.buzzmag.com/
Category: Entertainment
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Direct from the City of Angels is Buzz Online, the Web counterpart to Los Angeles' hipster city-mag Buzz. I never lived in L.A., but I still found myself paging through the print mag on more than a few occasions. In fact, according to the site, "Buzz Online views its remarkable home town as less a distinct geographical entity than a state of mind -- a metaphor, if you will, for the worlds of entertainment, media, popular culture, and millennial politics that fascinate and affect people everywhere." In real language, that means gossip, nightlife, movie and music tips, and other ephemera. Basically, the world drools over glam and the glitz, and Buzz knows how to package it. Stop here for a fix.
Overall Rating: 16
Buzzcuts
URL: http://www.sunset.net/buzzcuts/
Category: Music
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
I misread the tag line on the home page, "The One Word in Independent Record Reviews Sites," and thought that each review would deliver just one well-chosen word. Now that would be worth something. But alas, Buzzcuts is a basic collection of standard-issue record reviews, all apparently penned by the same indy-rock loving young hand. Don't get me wrong though, some of the writing on Buzzcuts actually demonstrates a modicum of talent. Example from a review of Cub's latest, "Box of Hair": "Cub found the balance. The balance between instrument and lyric, between innocence and aggression. The balance of a great record." Maximum Rock and Roll, hire this hepcat.
Overall Rating: 16
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum
URL: http://www.rockhall.com/index.html
Category: Music
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Hey, Huey Lewis was right! The heart of rock and roll *is* in Cleveland. Or at least this icon to it is. Unfortunately, their Web site just makes me want to take a trip to Cleveland. (I never thought I'd say *that*!) The list of exhibits is alluring and eclectic, from "Good Vibrations: The Making of a Song" to "Video Killed The Radio Star." And let's not forget to take a peek at Janis Joplin's psychedelic Porsche. Perhaps a bit more innovative multimedia would make the Museum's Web site shine--a Quicktime VR tour and audio files just isn't that exciting! Ultimately though, things like the list of "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll" make a virtual visit worthwhile. (Especially before going record shopping.)
Overall Rating: 16
Lupo's Punx Page
URL: http://www.punx.net/lupo
Category: Music
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Punk's not dead after all! Forget the spikes and mohawks because at its core, punk rock is about... rock. And the genre is still alive and thrashing, in backroom bars, basements, and underground clubs around the world. Lupo is a detail-oriented, high school-age punk curator of sorts, collecting links to hardcore acts online, relevant 'zines, and providing an annotated schedule of California punk shows (including a "pit warning" where applicable). Smash it up.
Overall Rating: 16
St. Alphonzo's Pancake Home Page
URL: http://www.wins.uva.nl/~heederik/zappa/
Category: Music
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Don't forget, the word "fan" is short for "fanatic"! Plenty of interviews, sound files, a daily quote, and quips culled from alt.fan.frank-zappa make this the comprehensive home for all children of the Mothers of Invention. The Zappa Discography, with lyrics to more than 450 songs, is perfect to transform your next slumber party into a Zappa sing-a-long. Not enough for you? Well there's a lot of surreal, posthumous Zappa stuff floating around the world in the form of radio shows, tribute bands, multimedia installations, and general mayhem. Check this searchable site to find the mayhem nearest you.
Overall Rating: 16
Todd's Great Big Stupendous Poetry Page
URL: http://bigdog.engr.arizona.edu/~harrist/poetry.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Forget coffeehouses people, the Web is the new home for good (but too often really bad) poets: This page overflows with what Todd the poet calls his "Random Poetry" and he deserves kudos for taking the DIY approach to publishing his verbiage. For a hint of what's in store, check out "The," a Todd masterwork that really touched me. Todd better be careful though. Some of his contributors may edge him out in the absurd poetry arena. Take "Tablet Junker" from Amanda Parks for example: "Michael Jacko / Is a wacko / He went smacko / In a cracko / Now he's backo / He gets slacko / I think his new album is okay." Yeah... dig it.
Overall Rating: 15
John's house of Weirdness
URL: http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/1033/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Zzzzzzzzzz.... John's House of Weirdness is yet another Vanity page that offers nothing but an insignificantly shallow insight into the creator's life. The usual: links to his friends, significant moments in his Web-wandering life, and the annoyingly ubiquitous Douglas Adams funny face character (whatever the hell it's called.) And, of course, the pointless use of Frames. In fact, John's "Thought of the Day" is that "Frames are most cool!!!" They sure are, but check somebody else's site for proof of this. Well, maybe I'm being too harsh. Kudos to John for at least experimenting with HTML. After all, who am I to talk. I don't even *have* a home page.
Overall Rating: 15
Jon & Francis Berndt
URL: http://www.hal-pc.org/~jsb/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Wow! In August, Jon and Francis visited Jon's parents in Minnesota. The weather was nice, and ooooh, the pictures! Lake Superior sure looks mighty purty with the boats floating on it. These kind of anecdotes and snapshots give me that same warm fuzzy feeling I get when I read about Jon and Francis' family history, also presented on this site. Once you've learned all about the Clan from Derbyshire, check out this pair's links of choice. My favorite has to be the "Presentation of Purported Flaws in Evolution Theory." Well, maybe the "Romance Writers' Resources" is even a little bit cooler than that. A page only Jon's mother could love. Or maybe members of his church.
Overall Rating: 15
BEARS in Moral and Political Philosophy
URL: http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Philosophy/bears/homepage.html
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Trudging through philosophy papers is a time-consuming task, especially when most of them are not worth the paper they're printed on. That's where BEARS comes in. BEARS is literally the Brown Electronic Article Review Service from Brown University. Offering short reviews of philosophical treatises of all kinds, BEARS let's you know what's worth your time, and what's not -- sort of like a philosopher's Cliff's Notes. Let's face it, in these fast times even short stories are too long.
Overall Rating: 15
An Illuminati Outline of History
URL: http://www.impropaganda.com/illuminati.html
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Finally! The secret history of the greatest secret society in the world is unveiled! Follow the occult practices of this political and mystical sect from the days ruling Atlantis, through the sly doings in the US in 1776, and into the last few decades of turmoil. Find out who put the pyramid on the back of the dollar bill, and who really assassinated JFK! LSD, UFOs, CIA, all the greatest acronyms are explored in this must-read historical reference to what's really going on! Remember, stay clear of those Masonic lodges. Robert Anton Wilson must be proud.
Overall Rating: 15
Laurie Anderson's Green Room
URL: http://www.voyagerco.com/LA/VgerLa.html
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The multimediatrix of performance art arrived on the Web last year, just in time for her "Nerve Bible" tour. While the itinerary on this site are long outdated and there isn't any "backstage" left to interact with, there is plenty of information on the Puppet Motel, Voyager's CD-ROM -- trip deep into the twisted caverns of Anderson's mind. Also of interest on this site are details about the Real World theme park that Anderson, Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno have been "planning" since the early 1980s. I'm still waiting. Anxiously.
Overall Rating: 15
Deco-Echoes
URL: http://www.deco-echoes.com/
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
I really wanted to like the Deco-Echoes site. After all, I'm a big fan of the 1950s Jetson's aesthetic. But unfortunately, this page is one of those good ideas/poorly executed deals. For example, the site's history of mid-twentieth century design is ridiculously cursory and graphics-light with only one visual example of each decade's design style. One redeeming factor on Deco-Echoes though are the links to vintage dealers -- probably a good bet if you're in the market for a spacey TV set circa 1958. While I'm excited to check out "The Echoes Report" magazine hyped on this page, Echoes' site-creation skills, like their subject matter, seems to be stuck in the past.
Overall Rating: 15
Dead Man Talkin by Dean
URL: http://monkey.hooked.net/m/hut/deadman/deadman.html
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
As you read this, Dean is currently hanging out at San Quentin Prison in California waiting to die. For real. Find out what New Year's is like in Prison, and learn why lethal injection may not be the best way to encourage those on death row to keep fighting the system for their lives. " The idea of going to sleep and not having to be in this place any longer is too seductive," Dean says. You can even e-mail your questions to Dean via infamous Bay Area talk-show host Alex Bennett and he'll answer them in future columns. This is hardcore, not the People's Court.
Overall Rating: 15
GeroWeb
URL: http://www.iog.wayne.edu/GeroWeb.html
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Brought to you by the Institute for Gerontology at Wayne State University, GeroWeb is a rich information clearing-house for researchers, educators, and care-takers. The site design is quite bland, but somehow appropriate for the academic and dry, yet useful, resources linked from its pages. Included are pointers to universities offering gerontology information, organizations of interest to the aging community, and government agencies useful to service providers and researchers. Not much fun, but seemingly purposeful information for the target audience.
Overall Rating: 15
Largesse the Network for Size Esteem
URL: http://www.fatgirl.com/largesse/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Largesse, the Network for Size Esteem, is a feminist resource center for "size diversity empowerment." What that means is that this insubstantial site is supposed to be a clearinghouse of health, diet, and legal information for "people of size." And these pages aren't just for adults either. Self-help and body image books for fat kids (phrase used on the site) are reviewed along with audiotapes, newsletters and other information for overweight children and their parents and teachers. As a resource it's fine, though it still has a way to go.
Overall Rating: 15
Welcome to Cybersmith
URL: http://www.cybersmith.com/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The real Cybersmith in Boston is one of the finest cyber-cafes I've ever guzzled mochas and megabytes in. Ironically though, their Web site is completely uninteresting. While they claim this site to be their "temporary" location, I'd expect much much more from people whose business is the net and community. There's little more here than lists of the top 10 CD-ROMs, games in the shop, and a boring list of links. Are the Boston City Hall or the RealAudio home pages really "hot sites?" C'mon kids, put down that cappuccino and get back to work
Overall Rating: 15
California Academy of Sciences
URL: http://www.calacademy.org/
Category: Science
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
This site From the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco could be a shining example of what it means to bring a museum online. Unfortunately, it's just... well... average. There are a few interesting exhibits presented here, most notably the "Frogs Of The Arabuko-Sokoke Forest in Kenya," with beautiful images of these surreal-looking toads in their natural habitat. But the site overflows with the mundane -- museum hours, list of classes offered, and, of course, the gift shop. This site is only worth a bookmark if you want to learn how to build your own Foucault Pendulum. Which I do....
Overall Rating: 15
Web Communications Publishing
URL: http://www.webcom.com/html/
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The Web is the great equalizer, enabling the teenager in her bedroom to have as elaborate and exciting a page as MTV. For those getting started in Web publishing, this site is a good place to start. Primarily just a list of links, the pages Web Technology points to guides on Web access, basic HTML, forms, site promotion, and, of course, how to publish your page on their server. While there are many similar sites out there, I say the more the merrier. Let's spread our own memes to the masses while we still can.
Overall Rating: 15
Christian Music Online
URL: http://www.cmo.com/
Category: Music
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Even if you're not down with Christianity, gospel and inspirational music can be a fun listen--if it's good. Everybody from traditional religious musicians to singer/songwriter types to Christian rappers (seriously) and Metalheads (swear to God!) are reviewed and represented here. (Don't worry, no Stryper). The writing is fluffy PR-type stuff, the design is kind of bland, but there's a lot of information and detailed tour itineraries for Christian music fans. And don't be fooled--there are plenty.
Overall Rating: 15
NUDE2000
URL: http://www.nude2000.com/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Keep your pants on people, we're talking nudists not nymphos. You know--nude volleyball, size doesn't matter, it's healthy and natural, etc. Nude 2000 is a nudist catalog/resource guide promoting "social nudism in the 21st century." Browse the list of videos of nudist adventures and resorts from all over the world before subscribing to Naturally Magazine, a publication for those choosing the "let it all hang out" lifestyle. A tasteful if slightly boring site, I bet their hit count is through the roof!
Overall Rating: 15
BEARS in Moral and Political Philosophy
URL: http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Philosophy/bears/homepage.html
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Trudging through philosophy papers is a time-consuming task, especially when most of them are not worth the paper they're printed on. That's where BEARS comes in. BEARS is literally the Brown Electronic Article Review Service from Brown University. Offering short reviews of philosophical treatises of all kinds, BEARS let's you know what's worth your time, and what's not -- sort of like a philosopher's Cliff's Notes. Let's face it, in these fast times even short stories are too long.
Overall Rating: 15
An Illuminati Outline of History
URL: http://www.impropaganda.com/illuminati.html
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Finally! The secret history of the greatest secret society in the world is unveiled! Follow the occult practices of this political and mystical sect from the days ruling Atlantis, through the sly doings in the US in 1776, and into the last few decades of turmoil. Find out who put the pyramid on the back of the dollar bill, and who really assassinated JFK! LSD, UFOs, CIA, all the greatest acronyms are explored in this must-read historical reference to what's really going on! Remember, stay clear of those Masonic lodges. Robert Anton Wilson must be proud.
Overall Rating: 15
Laurie Anderson's Green Room
URL: http://www.voyagerco.com/LA/VgerLa.html
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The multimediatrix of performance art arrived on the Web last year, just in time for her "Nerve Bible" tour. While the itinerary on this site are long outdated and there isn't any "backstage" left to interact with, there is plenty of information on the Puppet Motel, Voyager's CD-ROM -- trip deep into the twisted caverns of Anderson's mind. Also of interest on this site are details about the Real World theme park that Anderson, Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno have been "planning" since the early 1980s. I'm still waiting. Anxiously.
Overall Rating: 15
Dead Man Talkin by Dean
URL: http://monkey.hooked.net/m/hut/deadman/deadman.html
Category: Humanities
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
As you read this, Dean is currently hanging out at San Quentin Prison in California waiting to die. For real. Find out what New Year's is like in Prison, and learn why lethal injection may not be the best way to encourage those on death row to keep fighting the system for their lives. " The idea of going to sleep and not having to be in this place any longer is too seductive," Dean says. You can even e-mail your questions to Dean via infamous Bay Area talk-show host Alex Bennett and he'll answer them in future columns. This is hardcore, not the People's Court.
Overall Rating: 15
GeroWeb
URL: http://www.iog.wayne.edu/GeroWeb.html
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Brought to you by the Institute for Gerontology at Wayne State University, GeroWeb is a rich information clearing-house for researchers, educators, and care-takers. The site design is quite bland, but somehow appropriate for the academic and dry, yet useful, resources linked from its pages. Included are pointers to universities offering gerontology information, organizations of interest to the aging community, and government agencies useful to service providers and researchers. Not much fun, but seemingly purposeful information for the target audience.
Overall Rating: 15
Largesse the Network for Size Esteem
URL: http://www.fatgirl.com/largesse/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Largesse, the Network for Size Esteem, is a feminist resource center for "size diversity empowerment." What that means is that this insubstantial site is supposed to be a clearinghouse of health, diet, and legal information for "people of size." And these pages aren't just for adults either. Self-help and body image books for fat kids (phrase used on the site) are reviewed along with audiotapes, newsletters and other information for overweight children and their parents and teachers. As a resource it's fine, though it still has a way to go.
Overall Rating: 15
Welcome to Cybersmith
URL: http://www.cybersmith.com/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The real Cybersmith in Boston is one of the finest cyber-cafes I've ever guzzled mochas and megabytes in. Ironically though, their Web site is completely uninteresting. While they claim this site to be their "temporary" location, I'd expect much much more from people whose business is the net and community. There's little more here than lists of the top 10 CD-ROMs, games in the shop, and a boring list of links. Are the Boston City Hall or the RealAudio home pages really "hot sites?" C'mon kids, put down that cappuccino and get back to work
Overall Rating: 15
California Academy of Sciences
URL: http://www.calacademy.org/
Category: Science
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
This site From the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco could be a shining example of what it means to bring a museum online. Unfortunately, it's just... well... average. There are a few interesting exhibits presented here, most notably the "Frogs Of The Arabuko-Sokoke Forest in Kenya," with beautiful images of these surreal-looking toads in their natural habitat. But the site overflows with the mundane -- museum hours, list of classes offered, and, of course, the gift shop. This site is only worth a bookmark if you want to learn how to build your own Foucault Pendulum. Which I do....
Overall Rating: 15
Web Communications Publishing
URL: http://www.webcom.com/html/
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The Web is the great equalizer, enabling the teenager in her bedroom to have as elaborate and exciting a page as MTV. For those getting started in Web publishing, this site is a good place to start. Primarily just a list of links, the pages Web Technology points to guides on Web access, basic HTML, forms, site promotion, and, of course, how to publish your page on their server. While there are many similar sites out there, I say the more the merrier. Let's spread our own memes to the masses while we still can.
Overall Rating: 15
The Alternative Group
URL: http://www.mindspring.com/~tag/
Category: Political
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
O.K. Listen up... Gen Xers don't just spend their time eating Oreos and watching Brady Bunch reruns! Some of us *are* political and ready to grab Washington by its ties to make a difference. TAG promises to become a non-partisan filter and clearinghouse supporting practical public policy and discourse between the young people who will feel the effects of today's government, tomorrow. Most of this new site is still under construction, but TAG hopefully will become a powerful political launching point offering news analysis, links to relevant sites, and suggestions for action. Choose or lose, baby.
Overall Rating: 15
Westinghouse Science & Technology Center
URL: http://www.stc.westinghouse.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Upon first look, this site only presents what appears to be a pithy overview of the deep research being conducted at Westinghouse. The Technology area lists confusing-to-the-layman codewords for the new high-tech developments. And each departmental link (Intelligent Systems, Microelectronics, etc.) leads to a happy photo of its respective manager summarizing (and hyping) his group's work in a brief paragraph. But link a little further into some of the areas -- cryoelectronics, for example -- and geek out with some intense scientific papers and reports from the men and women in the white lab coats. Bring your slide rule!
Overall Rating: 15
Bantam Doubleday Dell
URL: http://www.bdd.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Yet another electronic promotional vehicle for a company that's best suited for the medium of dead trees. While the catalog of Bantam Doubleday Dell's books in print is mildly entertaining to peruse before you head off to Waldenbooks, a daily puzzle and horoscope aren't enough of a draw to make this site a bookmark. Somewhat interesting are the profiles of the featured writers and their tour dates, but haven't we heard enough about John Grisham already?
Overall Rating: 15
Todd's Great Big Stupendous Poetry Page
URL: http://bigdog.engr.arizona.edu/~harrist/poetry.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Forget coffeehouses people, the Web is the new home for good (but too often really bad) poets: This page overflows with what Todd the poet calls his "Random Poetry" and he deserves kudos for taking the DIY approach to publishing his verbiage. For a hint of what's in store, check out "The," a Todd masterwork that really touched me. Todd better be careful though. Some of his contributors may edge him out in the absurd poetry arena. Take "Tablet Junker" from Amanda Parks for example: "Michael Jacko / Is a wacko / He went smacko / In a cracko / Now he's backo / He gets slacko / I think his new album is okay." Yeah... dig it.
Overall Rating: 15
H P Lovecraft
URL: http://www.primenet.com/~dloucks/hplpage.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Cult horror novelist HP Lovecraft has found a worthy hidden home in this well designed and clear site. Of course a complete list of Lovecraft's tales is presented, but the most interesting elements of this site are the "readings" of Lovecraft's work. With the author's numerous references to numerous medieval texts containing secrets that "man was not meant to know," it can be difficult to discern between the actual dark manuscripts of our past and those that only have a history in Lovecraft's mind. Put simply, the Necronomicon is fiction. (We think. heh, heh, heh...)
Overall Rating: 15
Paper Airplane of the Month
URL: http://pchelp.inc.net/paper_ac.htm
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Long after the last cootie catcher of your grade school years has been recycled, paper airplanes are still guaranteed to amaze. Especially if you live on the third story. This cute site offers a new plane template every month to print, fold and let fly. But given the infinite possibilities of a sheet of paper (and maybe a paperclip or two), the maintainers of this page could certainly do better than monthly updates. You can always take the matter into your own hands though -- hacking your own dead tree dirigible is always more fun than recreating that same old flying wing.
Overall Rating: 15
John's house of Weirdness
URL: http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/1033/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Zzzzzzzzzz.... John's House of Weirdness is yet another Vanity page that offers nothing but an insignificantly shallow insight into the creator's life. The usual: links to his friends, significant moments in his Web-wandering life, and the annoyingly ubiquitous Douglas Adams funny face character (whatever the hell it's called.) And, of course, the pointless use of Frames. In fact, John's "Thought of the Day" is that "Frames are most cool!!!" They sure are, but check somebody else's site for proof of this. Well, maybe I'm being too harsh. Kudos to John for at least experimenting with HTML. After all, who am I to talk. I don't even *have* a home page.
Overall Rating: 15
Jon & Francis Berndt
URL: http://www.hal-pc.org/~jsb/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Wow! In August, Jon and Francis visited Jon's parents in Minnesota. The weather was nice, and ooooh, the pictures! Lake Superior sure looks mighty purty with the boats floating on it. These kind of anecdotes and snapshots give me that same warm fuzzy feeling I get when I read about Jon and Francis' family history, also presented on this site. Once you've learned all about the Clan from Derbyshire, check out this pair's links of choice. My favorite has to be the "Presentation of Purported Flaws in Evolution Theory." Well, maybe the "Romance Writers' Resources" is even a little bit cooler than that. A page only Jon's mother could love. Or maybe members of his church.
Overall Rating: 15
Global Change Data Center
URL: http://ame.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcdc/gcdc.html
Category: Science
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
This site provides background on the Global Change Data Center, an ongoing NASA project to develop archival and distribution systems for all the fancy figures gleaned from high-tech Earth observation systems both on the ground and in orbit. Gigabytes of information fly in daily about global environmental changes, and the ultimate product of the GCDC will be "access to (this) data." Without proper organization or access systems, this important information about the planet's health remains a bunch of ones and zeros, all downloaded with nowhere to go. Pretty soon, we could be in the same boat.
Overall Rating: 15
Lifetime Online
URL: http://www.lifetimetv.com/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The cable TV channel, *Lifetime*, is about one step up from soap operas and talk shows. They used to show *Eight Is Enough* and *Family* reruns, which I think is rad! But then I read that their Web site is "for women and the people in their lives" and I have to wonder if the channel has lost its unintended irony in the Web translation. After all, what kind of women (and people in their lives!) are we talking about here? I guess the type who dig "Romance Horoscopes," articles on nutrition, entertainment gossip (Jackson Five to reform!?!?), and too-sweet parenting info. *HotWired* for the *Reader's Digest* and tabloid set.
Overall Rating: 15
Smartwired
URL: http://www.smartwired.com/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Judging from its confusing content, I'd speculate that Smartwired is some sort of alcohol-enthusiast information resource -- these people really, really like to drink. Avoid this site if you're one of the so-called "neo-prohibitionists" referred to in the site's "Healthy Drinking" magazine. If you're not, you too can read articles with titles like "Telling Children All Alcohol Is Bad Simply Is Not True," "It's Official: Beer's Good For You" and other gems. After tasting that material, browse Smart Wine magazine or a page of alcohol-related links. I think I need a drink. Of water.
Overall Rating: 15
Lucy the Jack Russell Terrier
URL: http://www.lucy-the-dog.com
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Lucy is, you guessed it, a dog. And this is her home page. But don't stop reading yet--you won't be subjected to a million cute pictures of some family dog and narratives about how she bit the mailman. Lucy is a real mascot for an interesting Jack Russell Terrier site overflowing with information about this particular breed of dogs. And darned if they aren't the cutest things. Delve into the Jack FAQs, find out how to check into pet-friendly hotels when vacationing with your pooch, and, to make your hosts happy, browse through some of the real-life adventures of Lucy in words and pictures. Lucy in a blizzard is a laff-riot.
Overall Rating: 15
The Tobacconist
URL: http://www.law.vill.edu/~kmortens/humidor/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
I knew this site would make leave me jonesing for a cigar. I haven't smoked a stogy in months, and, indeed, I wish I had my hands on a fine Cuban and a sterling cutter right now. If you're not a tobacco enthusiast already, this site is not the best introduction to the smoky vice, nor is it supposed to be. Aficionados should come here for a comprehensive list of smoke-related links, including company sites, Web 'zines, and FAQs with lots of material. Hopefully, more original content will make this more than a glorified index for puffers. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Overall Rating: 15
Henry Rollins Stuff
URL: http://www.st.nepean.uws.edu.au/~alf/rollins/
Category: Music
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Looks like ol' Hank Rollins has a fan down under -- the University of Western Sidney, to be exact. There's plenty for this student to tell about the thick-necked, Renaissance man of punk. Rollins is not only a singer and writer, but a spoken word comedian for the black leather and combat boot set. Here, you can read reviews of Rollins' performances, check out his own sensitive-guy poetry, and groove to audio samples. There're also plenty of Rollins photos.
Overall Rating: 15
Genitorturers
URL: http://www.cris.com/~linenoiz/gen.html
Category: Music
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
A mainstay of the S/M-tinged industrial music scene, Genitorturers are bringing their nipple clamps to the Web. And, it's a slow and painful process (no pun intended!). While the design of their site is clean, the only things that aren't "coming soon" are song lyrics, a few images of Gen herself (nipple clamps intact) and, surprise, surprise, information for ordering merchandise. Seems like the promised song samples and press clips should have been a higher priority than the Genitorturers animated GIF logo, and, for the time being, I'd say fans are better off staring at a Genitorturers album cover while wearing a corset.
Overall Rating: 15
Grand Royal
URL: http://www.southern.com/grandroyal/
Category: Music
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
As any hipster in baggy jeans will tell you, Grand Royal is the umbrella tag for the Beastie Boys' record label and merchandising company. Here, you can check out hip hop vixens, Luscious Jackson, on SNL, sample cuts from the mad DJ Hurricane, and fill your calendar with Grand Royal artist tour dates. With plenty of PR and a lot of annoyingly inane attitude, this site is a sad example of the Beasties selling back the youth culture that spawned them. All that's missing is an official Grand Royal glossary of b-boy speak. You heard the record! You read the "'zine!" You bought the t-shirt! Now, see the Web site!
Overall Rating: 15
The Polar Regions
URL: http://www.stud.unit.no/~sveinw/arctic/
Category: Science
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Is there really a sign that lets you know when you're at the North Pole? Before packing your warm clothes, check out The Polar Regions site for plenty of information on both the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Hint: Both are chilly. This site is a launch point for virtual explorers of the far north and far south. Links to maps, scientific resources, expedition reports are included in this cleanly-designed - if somewhat sparse - resource. And if you feel compelled to learn more, delve into the tourist information. Just make sure you're wearing long johns.
Overall Rating: 15
Game Theory
URL: http://www.pitt.edu/~alroth/alroth.html
Category: Science
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
In the simplest terms, Game Theory is a mathematical method to predict the outcome of any contests that result in winners and losers, such as war or business. But of course that's only the tip of the iceberg. If you want the real scoop on Game Theory as part of empirical economics, Professor Al Roth at the University of Pittsburgh is the numbers nrrrd to visit. Roth has posted dozens of his esoteric papers in this field, and combed the Web for other worthy resources. From the technical to the introductory, learn the science of the bargaining game on Roth's home page.
Overall Rating: 15
Arthritis Foundation
URL: http://www.arthritis.org/
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
For those people dealing with arthritis, every bit of good information helps, and the Foundation is a fine place to begin. Learn about research progress, helpful organizations worldwide, and sample articles from Arthritis Today magazine. An effective search feature helps you look for information on exactly what ails you. The disclaimer at the bottom of the page reads "the information provided by the Arthritis Foundation should not take the place of advice and guidance from your own health-care providers." Maybe so, but it sure can't hurt.
Overall Rating: 15
Doctorline
URL: http://doctorline.com
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Looking for a new doctor? How about some health insurance? Doctorline is a medical services directory that will guide you to a physician in your state and health maintenance organizations, with a little helpful background on how they operate. Learn what common medical terms like nephrology and thoracic mean, or call a toll free health line for quick advice. Doctorline is well designed and maintained, but I tell you what: if I need to get my hemorrhoids removed I'm going with a personal reference.
Overall Rating: 15
National Stroke Association
URL: http://www.stroke.org/
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
If you have a loved one who has suffered a stroke, or just want to know what "stroke" really means, the NSA is a good resource to begin your online education. Take the stroke factors quiz and find out what you're chances are of having a so-called "brain attack." You can also contact one of the many support groups, volunteer for NSA, or look into the myriad resources the organization offers. A stroke in the family is extremely difficult to deal with, but as this site makes clear, you are not alone.
Overall Rating: 15
The Alternative Medicine Home Page
URL: http://www.pitt.edu/~cbw/altm.html
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
From the Falk Library of Health Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh comes this huge collection of links to alternative medicine resources. According to the page, that means unconventional, unorthodox, unproven, complementary, innovative, or integrative therapies. Via this well-organized collection of sites, you can find out how to join the arometherapy mailing list, see if Acupuncture is right for you, or find help in deciding whether kombucha tea is worth brewing. These subjects are considered to be total pseudo-science in some circles, the safest and most effective forms of medicine in others. Decide for yourself.
Overall Rating: 15
The Independent Film Channel
URL: http://www.ifctv.com/
Category: Film
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
I've been calling my cable provider almost weekly requesting the Independent Film Channel. Until they come through for me though, I'm stuck drooling over the listings. Unfortunately, the IFC Web site doesn't offer much more than an annotated TV Guide--plenty of hype about the channel and (yippee!) more program information. Besides, too many Frame dividers make the Independent Film Channel page look like a TV dinner. Unless you're lucky enough to find something interesting in the "Craft Services" classifieds area, or a link that you haven't seen before, your time would be better spent calling your cable company and demanding the channel itself.
Overall Rating: 15
Intentional Communities
URL: http://www.well.com/user/cmty/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Intentional Communities is a clearinghouse for information on collective living options, including ecovillages, communes, residential land trusts, urban housing cooperatives, and other group living situations. Check here for a calendar of conferences, and even read Communities: The Journal of Cooperative Living. Plain of design, but well-organized and comprehensive, this site is a fine resource for those choosing collective living. This was how we lived in the past. Is it time to return to those roots? After all, home is where the hearth is!
Overall Rating: 15
Bob's Rock Shop
URL: http://www.rtd.com/~bkeller/rockshop/rockshop.html
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Lapidary hobbyists take note: Bob's Rock Shop claims to be the first online magazines for rockhounds. Browse through a collecting site catalog for the US, mineralogical articles and essays, and upcoming show dates--if you're really lucky, you might find someone willing to part with that Cubic Galena Crystal you need for your collection. But Bob's real draw is the more than 150 beautiful mineral specimens displayed in the online gallery. From now on, I'm keeping an eye on the ground.
Overall Rating: 15
Wine Country Gourmet
URL: http://www.winegourmet.com
Category: Shopping
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Looking for some garlic stuffed Sevillanas Olives? How about hot pepper jellies? If you can't make it to the California Wine Country, this online shop will deliver those and other fine (and unusual) products to your door. At a loss as to what to do with distinctively California cuisine ingredients like fruit chutneys? Don't be too embarrassed. After all, recipes are provided on the site just for that purpose. Chutney Spiced Gingerbread sounds especially tasty. Order online or call the 800 number. And don't forget the vino, sold separately.
Overall Rating: 15
GIS
URL: http://info.er.usgs.gov/research/gis/title.html
Category: Science
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
According to this site, a geographic information system "is a computer system capable of assembling, storing, manipulating, and displaying geographically referenced information." So? Well, for example, you can take both a map of an area and population data from that area and use GIS to combine them for analysis. It's useful. I promise. This government site is a fine introduction to those uses, with clear and concise explanations, examples, and history of GIS. Textbook-style fun--interesting in a strictly educational way.
Overall Rating: 15
Earth Observation Guide and Directory
URL: http://gds.esrin.esa.it
Category: Science
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Brought to you by the European Space Agency (ESA), the Earth Oberservation Guide and Directory Service provides a wealth of nerdy tech information transmitted from above the atmosphere. The ESA operates several satellites and this site is one of the forms of media they use to disseminate information and present ideas about new projects. For instance, learn how "the work-around solution for the wind scatterometer, currently under evaluation, will eventually introduce an additional attenuation in the transmission path also in Image and Wave mode, and the AMI on-board gain setting in these modes shall be adjusted accordingly to compensate for this attenuation." Umm... Yeah.
Overall Rating: 15
The Barry Zone
URL: http://web.idirect.com/~baryzone
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Another vanity site where someone shares their personal experiences. Barry was part of the crew who traveled with the Rolling Stones to make the *At the Max* film, and he's posted selections from his journal from that time. No real dirt on Mick or Keith, but then again, he's only posted the first three entries. Barry also writes of his experiences working on the Monarch Butterfly movie for IMAX, which actually seems more exciting than following the Stones. Finally, Barry is a new dad. Link to his son Ross's page to find out more. The Stones, butterflies, and babies... I love the Web!
Overall Rating: 15
Wool and Water
URL: http://www.users.interport.net/~kmilai/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Named after a chapter in *Through the Looking Glass*, Wool and Water is the graphically interesting home page of Kim Milai, musician, teacher, and software developer in New York. Kim's site is primarily a collection of links--X Files, Lewis Carroll, spelunking, etc.--but she is also the creator of a fine site devoted to Friday The 13th: The Series. Plenty of scary stuff for diehard fans. Also exciting is the site Kim designed for a NYC elementary school. After all, those kids are the digital future. We're just playing in their world.
Overall Rating: 15
The Real Kramer Home Page
URL: http://www.bway.net/~kramer/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Seinfeld fans take note: Kenny Kramer is a force to be reckoned with. Kenny lives across the hall from Seinfeld executive producer and co-creator Larry David, and was the inspiration for the Cosmo Kramer character! Now, the real Kramer has put together a Reality Tour of New York City to bring fans to the places made famous on Seinfeld. Visit Monk's Restaurant, Elaine's office building, and even The Soup Shop! (Don't call Al "the Soup Nazi" though--he won't be pleased.) If you're a Seinfan, this site will hook you with snapshots from the tour, but you'll have to head to NYC for the real thing.
Overall Rating: 15
Jason's World
URL: http://home.earthlink.net/~JTownsend/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Experience life as a teenager again through the eyes of Jason, your Web master. Read about Jason hitting the mall for the latest Smashing Pumpkins' release. ("It's got some cool music on it, and also some of the crappiest I've ever heard," he says.) Find out about the three things Jason does to escape the boredom of the "dungeon" (school). (Thinking of Pamela Anderson Lee "running very swiftly across a beach" is activity #1.) And.... Vote on who next month's featured "Babe" should be. This month is Ms. Lee of course. I voted for Alanis Moressette for next month (the choices were limited). Jason said his favorite food and drink is pizza and Coke. Mine too! Jason, I'll meet you at the mall.
Overall Rating: 15
Rudd Equipment
URL: http://www.ruddequip.com
Category: Corporate
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Get out yer hard hat--The Rudd Equipment Company is ready to meet "construction needs on the World Wide Web." And we're not talking about ways to get rid of those annoyingly ubiquitous "under construction" symbols on the Web, either. Rudd Equipment deals in wheel loaders, excavators, cranes, drills, rollers, and graders. The heavy duty stuff. Use their site to see what's on hand and even put your own goods up for sale. Need to talk with a Rudd sales rep? Click on the map to find one near you. I may look into buying a crane. You never know when you'll need a big crane.
Overall Rating: 15
Weston
URL: http://www.rfweston.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Not the oil, that's Wesson. Weston is a large environmental services firm that will take care of your waste management, water treatment, air quality management, and even landfill construction needs. And the best part is that according to their site, Weston does it all with a "preserve, protect, restore" mindset about Mother Earth. In addition to plenty of info about the company and its history, you can also search and read papers dealing with environmental issues like pollution prevention and sustainable development.
Overall Rating: 15
British Airways
URL: http://www.british-airways.com/bans/checkin1.htm
Category: Corporate
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
British Airways is a densely packed site serving the needs of its UK customers. (All prices are in pounds!) If you're preparing to fly on this airline, there's an endless of supply of details that you don't need to know but can find out on this site, anyway--the airline's mission statement, environmental policies, etc. You can also check here for schedules and fares. Packed and well-organized, with only one thing missing: Online reservations!
Overall Rating: 15
Colgate-Palmolive
URL: http://www.colgate.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
First of all, I'm a Crest man. So I'm biased. But this company also makes Palmolive and Ajax, which I use frequently, so I'll try to remain objective. I'm not too interested in their "Story Behind Our Global Brands" or the fun historical facts about the company's history on their site though. And the product info galore doesn't do much for me either. As usual, the real fun to be had is in the "Kids' World" portion of the site, complete with brushing tips. You can even fill in a form to let the Tooth Wizard (what happened to the Fairy?) know your tooth is gone, and check your e-mail the next morning for a message! Now if my computer would just floss for me.
Overall Rating: 15
HighTimes
URL: http://www.hightimes.com
Category: Media
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Yes, one of the oddest magazines to flip through, giggle at, and never buy, has hit the Web. Now you can actually read current and past issues, without living in fear that your parents will find it between those Zeppelin records. My favorite part of the site is the "Pot Shots" gallery of buds and bongs -- reminds me of centerfolds in men's magazines...only different. Make sure to pay a visit to the herbal Oracle, where your reefer-related questions will be answered. As the site says, "We've got all the space we need! So who got the weed?!" (eyeroll)
Overall Rating: 15
Flying Circle Graphics,Inc.
URL: http://www2.eos.net/speed/
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Flying Circle Graphics, "Dedicated to WWI Aeroplane Exotica," is the story of one man's fascination with the instruments of war that flew during the early part of this century. Read a brief account of how the webmaster fell in love with the subject as a child, his observations about the design of certain aircraft (linked to photos), and a few bits about the character of specific pilots. Fairly well-written, but content-lite.
Overall Rating: 15
The RabbitWeb
URL: http://www.cland.net/~tonyholt/rabbits.htm
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The Rabbit Web is a fine place for serious rabbit fans to sniff around. Angora information from Nepal, rabbitry suppliers, classifieds, and both private and commercial links, will please any bunny breeder. And if you're into a specific kind of rabbit, find others by joining or setting up a specialty club through Rabbit Web. For example, the American Fuzzy Lop Rabbit Club is already showing off its prize winning rabbits on the site! And damn if the bunny pictures aren't adorable!
Overall Rating: 15
Cyberbotanica
URL: http://biotech.chem.indiana.edu/botany/
Category: Science
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Produced by Lucy Snyder of Indiana University's Biotech Project, Cyberbotanica is a hyperlinked guide to plants that can be used in Cancer treatment. Currently, only a small section of the guide is posted containing information on plants and chemotherapy. Find out about hemp and periwinkle for example, and how certain ingredients in those botanicals can be used for pharmacological purposes. Among planned future chapters is one on fungi which produce antibiotics. Organized clearly and simply by plant and medicinal compounds, Cyberbotanica could become a very useful research and health aid as the site develops.
Overall Rating: 15
New England Aquarium
URL: http://www.neaq.org/
Category: Science
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Aside from a basic virtual tour (with neat aquatic sound samples), the majority of the information on this site is press releases and background information about the Aquarium's projects and events. Their work in conservation is absolutely interesting and worthwhile, but perhaps they could balance the big picture with more ways to "act locally." Even their kids' section -- including "Virtual Whale Watch," in which you can go along on a whale adventure (meaning, you can look at snap shots) -- is banal at best. The New England Aquarium site is better than an aquarium screen saver I suppose, but doesn't compare to pushing your face against a tank and looking a fish right in the eyes.
Overall Rating: 15
Matt's Solar Car
URL: http://www.-lips.ece.utexas.edu/~delayman/solar.html
Category: Science
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
As we deplete our oil supplies, some ingenious folks are busy designing solar automobiles that may replace the current gas-guzzlers. And a few adventurous nerds are even racing these solar cars! For a window into the solar car world, check out this site. Find out which universities are building and racing solar race cars and scroll through photos of the Jetsons-esque automobiles. Then link to information about upcoming solar car races. Matt has even archived digests of the Electric Vehicle Email List, where you can learn about technical stuff like the latest advances in batteries, a key component for electric and photovoltaic vehicles. Solar cars--what a bright idea.
Overall Rating: 15
Jane Goodall Institute
URL: http://www.gsn.org/gsn/proj/jgi/index.html
Category: Science
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The Jane Goodall Institute, named for the passionate scientist who became famous for hanging with chimps, is dedicated to wildlife research, education, and conservation, and, more specifically, with studying chimpanzees. Here, you can find out about the Institute and its protective efforts for chimps, who are more closely related to us, genetically speaking, than they are to gorillas! If you want to join the Institute in preserving the balance between humans, the Earth, and the other creatures who share our world, their Roots and Shoots program is a good place to start. Here, kids can learn how to start and join environmental and community service projects in their own area.
Overall Rating: 15
A & E
URL: http://www.aetv.com/
Category: Entertainment
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
A & E is one of the most underrated cable channels. Where else can you catch a "Biography" of Amelia Earhart before enjoying a guilty chuckle courtesy of Howard Stern? The A & E site is cleanly designed with deep background on their programming -- from mysteries to classic movies to Quincy reruns. Teachers will appreciate the A & E Classroom materials, so they can help make watching TV educational! (Seriously!) If you're into A & E, it's worth stopping here to browse the daily and weekly schedules. Of course, that isn't much use if you don't have cable. As if.
Overall Rating: 15
Gigaplex
URL: http://www.gigaplex.com/
Category: Entertainment
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Talk about information overload! Gigaplex is a 600+ page entertainment webzine! Divided into around a dozen sub-sections -- everything from Filmplex to Bookplex to Yogaplex to Golfplex -- this site shouts comprehensiveness. Recipes, celebrity interviews, athletic tips, book excerpts, and other entertainment tidbits are all free for the browsing. (Although the writing quality could certainly be improved.) There's also plenty of related crapola to blow cash on. If I'm wrong and the successful Web publishing model turns out to be "general interest" as opposed to "hyperspecific," Gigaplex has it made.
Overall Rating: 15
Batman TAS Encyclopedia
URL: http://www.cmgnet.com/~ames
Category: Entertainment
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The series that inspired the "Dark Deco" genre of TV animation is well-documented on this truly fanatical fan's site. This is *the* place to learn the history of Gotham CIty's weirdest and wildest inhabitants, from familiar faces like Catwoman and Penguin, to newer rogues like Joker's female flack, Harley Quinn. An episode guide reprinted from Cinemafantastique has also been posted so you can keep track of your own "see and must-see" list. Alfred would be proud.
Overall Rating: 15
Prosperity Partners
URL: http://www.note.com/note/pp/
Category: Finance
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Won the lottery recently? Bumming about the 20 year pay-out schedule? Sued the pants off someone and want all your money right now? Prosperity Partners is here to help. What this firm does is legally buy out your lottery ticket or other unusual cash flow instrument and present you with a lump sum of money -- a technique they claim will stop inflation from eating at the value of your payments. Sounds like a good idea, but what's the catch? You certainly won't find an answer to that question on the home page. My suggestion? Wait until you hit the Pick-Six and *then* call Prosperity Partners for more information.
Overall Rating: 15
Biography.com
URL: http://www.biography.com/
Category: Humanities
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Based on A & E's excellent television show, the Biography Web site is pure mind candy for those enthralled by other people's pasts. Speak out about Biography subjects like Rush Limbaugh and Jerry Lewis in the "Speak" bulletin board section. Then, test your knowledge in the Anagram Game or Biography Quiz. (Who was the U. S. engineer who, in 1852, developed a lift that incorporated a safety device, making it acceptable for passenger use in skyscrapers? Tune in to Biography to find out.) Biography.com is an educational complement, rather than a boring advertisement, for a fine television show.
Overall Rating: 15
FoodTV
URL: http://www.foodtv.com/index.htm Lifestyles
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
For all you can stomach in recipes, restaurant reviews, culinary tips, and products that you just *can't* live without, visit the Food TV Network Web site. Missed the latest how-to from Debbie Fields' -- of "Mrs. Field's Cookies" fame -- Desert Show or The Essence of Emeril? Ingredient lists are here for the browsing. And if you're a recipe fetishist, there are also plenty of cookbooks from Food TV show hosts advertised on the site. You can even buy a fancy kitchen knife endorsed by the Food Network. No, it's not a Ginsu.
Overall Rating: 15
Campaign for our Children
URL: http://www.cfoc.org/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Campaign for our Children is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to reducing the number of teen pregnancies in this country. According to this site, a US teenager becomes pregnant every 26 seconds. That's a lot of babies having babies. Good parent and teacher resources are available on this site, and the Campaign's slogans are poignant without being naive--example: "A baby costs $474 a month, how much is your allowance?" While their call for abstinence may not be realistic, almost anyone urging kids and parents to *talk* about sex is OK in my book.
Overall Rating: 15
Jewish Domestic Abuse and Agunah Problem Web Page
URL: http://users.aol.com/agunah/index.htm
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
In Jewish religious law, according to the home page, an Agunah is "a woman who is prevented from remarrying, either because of the disappearance of her husband, absent proof of his death, or because of his refusal to grant her a "get" ["bill of divorcement", or religious divorce]. This site, maintained by a law student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was designed as a resource for Agunot (plural of Agunah) and Jewish women suffering from all kinds of domestic abuse. The site offers articles, information about resource organizations for victims, excerpts from Jewish family law, and first-person accounts. Not a pleasant subject for a Web site, but definitely an important one.
Overall Rating: 15
AcronTech
URL: http://www.acrontech.com/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Computers may be valuable tools, but what if you can't read the words on your screen? AcronTech manufactures products to increase the independence of visually-impaired people. Their products include large-print and speech-synthesizer software applications, audible sign technology, and portable video magnifiers. While the AcronTech Website is primarily an expanded company brochure, it's in everyone's best interest to know that these kinds of products are available for the people who need them. *Equal* access to information is what the New Edge is all about.
Overall Rating: 15
The Official Temple of Set
URL: http://www.calweb.com/~reshef/ Religion
Category: Religion
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Protect your children! The Satanists are online! In the mid-1970s, Mr. Devil carn-man himself, Anton La Vey, redesigned his Church of Satan, according to this site "as a non-functional vehicle for his personal expression, exploitation, and financial income." (More power to him!) Alas, the Temple of Set took over to fill the religious void. Before you scoff, the Temple of Set urges you to check out their history and basic tenets, outlined at this site. Bottom line: It's not about listening to Slayer and sacrificing kittens. Now, if they can score the hell.org domain...
Overall Rating: 15
Christian Computing Magazine
URL: http://www.ccmag.com
Category: Religion
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Cybernuns, check this: Christian Computing magazine is all about "Applying Tomorrow's Technology to Today's Ministries." Enjoy useful articles on subjects like how to "use clip art specific to your ministry for effective publications" and timely reviews of products along the lines of "Bible Baseball for Windows." In fact, the editor-in-chief's email address is god@heaven.com! (Not really.) Seriously though, the magazine's focus may seem odd, but it looks to be a useful guide for those using technology to improve yet another form of communication -- in this case, the communication of religious ideals.
Overall Rating: 15
Oregon Dept. of Forestry
URL: http://salem10nt.odf.state.or.us/homepage.htm
Category: Science
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Most of the information on the content-rich Oregon Dept. of Forestry site is concerned with forest fires in the area -- statistics, progress of groups battling blazes, and other news. Forest fires are a science to be studied, and outdoor adventurers will appreciate this detailed insight into the matter. The photo gallery features intense images of burning land while the Q & A section explains the point behind things like "prescribed burning." Weather information and links are also well-organized for more information on the amazing greenery in our national backyard. And don't forget to check out the Smokey Bear posters!
Overall Rating: 15
Land Rover
URL: http://www.landrover.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Sports Utility Vehicles are just so...rugged. Macho. The person who drives one *must* be a true outdoor adventure type. Either that, or a yuppie with some extra cash to blow. But the Web site does succeed in grabbing you with that off-road virus. Pictures of muddy vehicles on picturesque landscapes and model specs abound, and Land Rover will even help set you up with an adventure to match your vehicle: "So if you'd rather be a traveler than a tourist, if you enjoy acquiring new driving skills and mastering new sports, if you appreciate warm hospitality and ice-cold champagne, look within for an Invitation you cannot refuse." Yeah, as if my old Chevy Sprint wouldn't have made it to the Redwoods.
Overall Rating: 15
Smucker's
URL: http://www.smucker.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
That must be jelly because jam don't shake like that! Smucker's is the brand when it comes to fruity spreads for your breads. And here, you can take a dip into the history of the company, starting with the time Jeremy Smucker prepared the first batch of Apple Butter with fruit straight from Mr. Appleseed's trees. A nice old fashioned-style lay out, but without much content beyond nutritional info and a few recipes. The Smucker's quiz is cute, but just leaves me hungry for some Strawberry-Passion Fruit on a lightly browned piece of toast.
Overall Rating: 15
Channel Surfer Journal
URL: http://www.tiac.net/users/tvbobs/
Category: Entertainment
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Forget the Web as an entertainment medium, it's time to return to the mothership! Channel Surfer Journal is apparently a print publication and guide to television, and if the Web site is any indication, it's an irreverent alternative to TV Guide. (Example from the online listings: "This Friday, Everybody Loves Raymond, or at least CBS hopes so.") Not much to the Web site beyond a survey of the current week's offerings, but just wait until the Net and tube really converge. Yeah. Right. Keep sucking on that glass teat, people! (Now, where can I get the dead tree version of the Channel Surfer Journal?)
Overall Rating: 15
iMusic
URL: http://imusic.com
Category: Music
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
With record reviews, streamed audio, national tour guides, and chat boards devoted to various bands, iMusic gets an "A" for effort. But even all this, plus decent writing, and a few cutesie games featuring images of the stars (Tic Tac Toe with The Presidents of the USA, for instance) isn't enough to bring another music site to the top of the Web's publishing mire. Quaint radio station carryovers, like the trite, Smash It of Trash It! feature leave a bad taste. Still, it's one to watch.
Overall Rating: 15
Tie-Dyed
URL: http://www.tie-died.com/tied.htm
Category: Music
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Tie-Dyed is the oft-mentioned indy film documentary about Deadhead culture, filmed during the Summer 1994 tour. Whether you loved the Dead, or swerve to hit VW mini-buses, the pop cultural importance of the band and the mad circus that followed them cannot be denied. The Tie-Dyed Web site is, of course, a marketing tool for the film, providing a schedule of showings, reviews, videotape ordering information, and a trailer preview. But the creators have also done a commendable job of sifting through the online noise to provide a few good links to sites related to the Deadhead scene. Not a very compelling film promotion, but the site still piqued my curiosity. And I've never owned a tie-dye.
Overall Rating: 15
Politix.fix
URL: http://www.infogo.com/~nhdf01a/
Category: Political
Issue: 0197
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Politix.fix is a soapbox political zine produced by a few driven college-age types who seem to enjoy practicing their poly sci. Unfortunately, every piece on here reads like an essay for a political science class! OK, so I disagree with their belief that TV is poisoning the mind of America's youth and that the V-Chip is the solution. At least that's a topical issue to address. But yet another essay analyzing the Generation X meme? C'mon Politix.fixers, even Gen X *backlash* is tired. Oh well, I suppose the freedom to rant pointlessly is guaranteed in the Constitution too.
Overall Rating: 15
Culture Shock
URL: http://www.communications.hunter.cuny.edu/shock/
Category: Zines
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Culture Shock is a collection of hip papers written by New York City graduate students for a course called "The Historical and Social Roots of Mass Culture." What you'll get here are well thought out, well written critical essays and anecdotal tales concerning the many sides of popular culture. For example, a deconstruction of Beavis and Butt-head sits well in the table of contents with the "Fear and Loathing on 42nd Street" feminist take on peep shows, and a study of "Fame in an Image Culture." It seems that Foucault is fine and living in grad school seminars!
Overall Rating: 15
The Scott Gallery
URL: http://haven.uniserve.com/~mscott/
Category: Literature
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Michael Scott has finally brought his unique melding of photography and poetry to the Web. (Never heard of him? Neither had I.) Anyway, Michael has graciously organized his textual and visual artworks under a half dozen themes, including love, war, philosophy and others. The photos -- birds, flowers, raindrops on a branch, etc.-- are quite serene and well shot in a New Age postcard kind of way -- the accompanying poetry is extremely melodramatic. Michael says he's offering his work as "an oasis of positive thought on the Internet." With that in mind, his page deserves a look just for the karma alone.
Overall Rating: 14
Algor
URL: http://www.algor.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
What the hell is Algor, anyway? A quick glance at the home page doesn't reveal anything about the power behind the pages, but the links are appealing nonetheless. Several clicks in, it's finally possible to deduce that Algor makes software used for a variety of truly interesting scientific purposes like aerospace, chemical, and mechanical engineering projects. Probably most notable to non-PhD nerds surfing this site is the story of Dante II, the robot used to explore a volcano in Alaska in 1994. And guess what! Algor software was used in the design of the robot. Scientific self-promotion at its finest.
Overall Rating: 14
The Scott Gallery
URL: http://haven.uniserve.com/~mscott/
Category: Literature
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Michael Scott has finally brought his unique melding of photography and poetry to the Web. (Never heard of him? Neither had I.) Anyway, Michael has graciously organized his textual and visual artworks under a half dozen themes, including love, war, philosophy and others. The photos -- birds, flowers, raindrops on a branch, etc.-- are quite serene and well shot in a New Age postcard kind of way -- the accompanying poetry is extremely melodramatic. Michael says he's offering his work as "an oasis of positive thought on the Internet." With that in mind, his page deserves a look just for the karma alone.
Overall Rating: 14
Net Spew
URL: http://www.netspew.com/
Category: Music
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
NetSpew is the cross-promotional marketing child of Atlantic Records and Michael Wolff & Co. -- the one who brought us the ubiquitous *NetGuide* series of books. Basically, NetSpew packages together the *NetMusic* guide to online music resources, and *Spew+*, an enhanced CD digizine featuring articles about and tracks by (you guessed it!) Atlantic Records artists. My advice? Check out *NetGuide* from the library and skip NetSpew entirely. The site is only good for easy access to the Atlantic Records, Michael Wolff, and Tower Web sites.
Overall Rating: 14
Professor Skurray's Food and Nutrition
URL: http://hotel.hawkesbury.uws.edu.au/~geoffs/
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
From Australia's University of Sidney comes Professor Skurray and the Centre for Advanced Food Research. In this meager site, you can find information on reccomended daily allowances of nutrients, dietary guidelines for Australians, and a paper about the chemistry of sports drinks. And, of course, a few links. That's about it. The funky formatting of the text makes some of the papers nearly unreadable, which is only good if you're on a low-information diet.
Overall Rating: 14
San Francisco Aquarium Society
URL: http://members.aol.com/sfas/index.html
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The San Francisco Aquarium Society is a group of hardcore aquarists that hosts meetings, shows, and publishes a monthly newsletter. If you can barely keep one goldfish alive, it probably would be a good idea to check out one of their meetings before you empty your wallet on a 50 gallon salt water outfit. Meeting schedules and membership information is available on the site, but there is a definite lack of informational resources for the aquarist here. And that's pretty fishy. (I couldn't resist.) If you're not into aquariums already, this site won't pique your interest.
Overall Rating: 14
International Bonsai Guide
URL: http://www.idiscover.co.uk/bonsai
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
According to the Bonsai FAQ on this site, a Bonsai is simply "a dwarfed tree growing in a try or a pot." The tree is clipped and groomed at the hands of a dedicated and careful owner. Here, you can find a Bonsai society in your area and meet friends for tips and clipping company. There's also link to related sites and source information for new Bonsai suppliers. Good information for the bonsai enthusiast, but the site is graphically uninteresting. If you don't already know the beauty of the Bonsai, you won't find it here.
Overall Rating: 14
The Valley of Fear
URL: http://home.earthlink.net/~dmoore
Category: Literature
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Welcome to the Valley of Fear, one fan's tribute to Sherlock Holmes and his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. ("Valley of Fear" is a title of one of the author's books.) Trim in content, this site contains bibliographies of Doyle's books and the stories that star the great deductive reasoner, and a few links to related sites. Worth a peek if you're looking for a clue about Holmes and Doyle, but way too skimpy for a bookmark.
Overall Rating: 14
Urban Jungle
URL: http://members.aol.com/getwizdom/ub1.html
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Jesus H. Christ! Hip hop clothes with a bible bent?!? Yes, that's right. Urban Jungle is a Christian underground clothing company "creating Bible inspired urban fashion for you." For only $10.00, you can be the first in your congregation to sport a "Stompin 4 Christ N Yo Front Yard" t-shirt. But Urban Jungle is not just about clothes. The company was also created to "to help you connect with the dopest underground holy hip-hop music there is." Word. Those hymns would be kickin' with a break beat behind the choir. Yo. This is not a joke.
Overall Rating: 14
Jews for Judaism
URL: http://www.clark.net/pub/mpowers/j4j/web/
Category: Religion
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Jews for Judaism is a national organization dedicated to countering deceptive missionary and cult groups targeting Jews for conversion. Unfortunately, the site lacks any real content other than some background on the organization and contact information. One interesting area, though, is the "Ask the Rabbi" section. Here, you can find Jewish responses to typical missionary claims like "there is only 'one way' to obtain salvation." While this information may be useful in serious debate, my preferred tactic is to inform evangelists, nicely, that I have a Church of Satan meeting to go to and, regrettably, will have to miss their "party." But if a Jewish friend or family member has strayed from the flock, perhaps Jews for Judaism might help.
Overall Rating: 14
The Wonder of Physics
URL: http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/wop.htm
Category: Science
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
In 1984, the University of Wisconsin-Madison began a program to turn on people of all ages and backgrounds to the astounding world of physical science. Presented by the charismatic Professor Clint Sprott, The Wonder of Physics, a nerdy edu-magic show of sorts, plays at the campus periodically and even tours the area. On the site, videotapes, lecture kits, and computer software are sold. In addition, some of the subjects Sprott covers are outlined and interesting pictures of the Professor's extravagant demonstrations are presented. But the site's one major flaw is obvious: The Wonder of Physics may be a fine treat if you're lucky enough to catch it live, but why not offer an online version for the world to enjoy?
Overall Rating: 14
New Man Magazine
URL: http://www.newmanmag.com
Category: Religion
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
No, this isn't one of those Robert Bly, fire in the belly, drumming and chanting-type publications. It's a mag for "Men of Integrity" -- you know, manly men, Christian men. It's sort of like *GQ* meets Sunday School, with "Daily Devotionals" instead of sex and grooming columns. The week I looked at the site, the "Top Story" was: "Hope is rising, and men are praying for a river of revival in America. Believers from all streams of the church are responding." Super. Elsewhere in the news...
Overall Rating: 14
LateNet With Tim Conway, Jr.
URL: http://www.ifnet.com
Category: Entertainment
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
LateNet is a RealAudio entertainment talk show hosted by Mr. Conway, Jr. himself. The night I logged in, Multiplicity's Kari Coleman was in the house, and other funny folks were poking around. The site looks hip, but navigation is a nightmare. Ever heard of frames, people? The show airs live nightly, but through the beauty of low-fi Netcasting, you can hear it anytime you're time-shifting heart desires. Sort of like a public access radio talk show, if it weren't backed by Budweiser. But it is.
Overall Rating: 14
X-Files Home
URL: http://www.xfiles.com/
Category: Entertainment
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Not affiliated with the X-Files TV show (but congrats on getting the domain!), the X-Files Home Page is a fan club in its nascent stages, with a few links, some X-Philes humor, and links to the Virtual Merchant hawking fan gear online. As a matter of fact, the most interesting (and almost only) thing this site has to offer is the X-Files MegaChat room. With so many X-Phile pages on the Web, this Webmaster has a lot of work ahead of him to prove himself worthy of the domain name. The truth must be out there, because it certainly isn't here.
Overall Rating: 14
Bhangra Radio
URL: http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/3050/
Category: Music
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Unless you're from Far East, you probably don't know that Bhangra is "a festive style of dance and music from the Indian province of Punjab." But as any hipster DJ can confirm, the Indian vibe can make a blissful meld with Western drum and bass, reggae, and techno. Along with music charts and an India chat room, Bhangra Radio promises audio samples from the likes of ABC Productions' Dance Mix India compilation. Unfortunately, a text-light music site is only as rich as its sound samples. And these don't work. Get on it, Webmaster! Your audience is listening.
Overall Rating: 14
Bread
URL: http://wanda.pond.com/~jandock/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Apparently, Bread is a Christian "community" formed by young adults in Philadelphia. According to their sparse Web site, this group is interested in developing Christian ministries and social service programs like day care, counseling and arts therapy. And they're looking for collaborators. Umm, what else about this site? Ummmm.... Ummmm.....
Overall Rating: 13
Crystalian Stabalysis
URL: http://www.public.asu.edu/~amerist/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Very mysterious... The Crystalians seem to be a society of Celtic mythology enthusiasts involved in exploring and creating their own fantasy world of clans, elves, and dragons. Very Renaissance Faire meets Dungeons and Dragons with no clear indication as to what the Crystalians actually do on a daily basis. The only Crystalian clan so far is the "A'Toll" and they claim to be "a clan devoted to the attainment of knowledge and understanding. As a result," they continue, "we are here on the Internet doing such." Aren't we all...
Overall Rating: 13
Chaos Network
URL: http://www.prairienet.org/business/ptech/
Category: Science
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
I'm a big fan of Chaos Theory, an examination of the complex order in seemingly-random systems. I also find fractals, the visual representation of chaos math, quite beautiful. So, needless to say, I was jazzed to join the Chaos Network with its cyberdelic name and fractal-adorned home page. But alas, each click of my mouse was met with the dreaded 404 Not Found message. Perhaps the real message here is that we don't need to join the Chaos Network because, after all, we're already members. But probably not. Get busy, Webmaster.
Overall Rating: 13
Cumulative Units of Binary Excellence
URL: http://www.voicenet.com/~enrich/
Category: Science
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
One quark, two quark, red quark, blue quark,...CUBE is a list of links to sites dealing with the trippiest subjects in physics--Quantum Mechanics, Particle Physics, and "the subatomic realm." With only five or so annotated links per section, this site is not comprehensive by any means, but does shed some light on where to find information about hypermatter, Schrodinger's Cat, and other *relatively* interesting things. Ever wonder why that one quark is so "strange?" Cube can point you in the right direction.
Overall Rating: 13
This is Jazz
URL: http://www.sony.com/Music/Legacy/ThisIsJazz/index.html
Category: Music
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
This Is Jazz, a series of CDs from Sony Music, would do its name justice by introducing another generation to the unrivaled notes of Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, and other legendary players. Each of the initial ten digitally-remastered discs features an informal "best of" selection from the greats by way of introduction to America's classical music. The promotional Web site however, offers little more than a track-list for each album and a short bio of the performer. Would-be jazz buffs are advised to pick up the CDs but look elsewhere online for the stories behind the music.
Overall Rating: 13
The Dungeon
URL: http://www.primenet.com/~xtorres
Category: Zines
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
You would think the gloom and doom crowd would be right at home in the depths of The Dungeon--a darkside 'zine obsessed with pain, agony, and torture. But in reality, the site itself is a torture to read, with dark green and red text on a black background. And the content is not at all worth going blind for. One of the things that The Dungeon offers is a place to confess your secret torture fantasies--like how you want to cut the soles of someone's feet off and leave them at the beach. Or you can relive the "Create Your Own Adventure" book days by traveling through Lurk, a somewhat inane piece of interactive horror fiction where you see "how many different ways you can die in one sitting."
Overall Rating: 13
J Walter Thompson
URL: http://www.jwtworld.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Take a surreal jaunt through J. Walter Thompson's world of advertising. Learn about the firm's "global" approach to advertising while enjoying some New Yorker-esque illustrations. Visit the gallery where you can view TV commercials from the firm's repertoire or get a personalized Web site via an e-mailed URL, for viewing at your leisure. Neat, but I'm not really clear on the point. There's even an online game where budding creative- and/or cutthroat-types get a chance to shine in a pretend advertising office. I'll stick to *watching* commercials.
Overall Rating: 12
CONSTRUCT
URL: http://vrml.arc.org/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Construct is the most inspired Internet design firm in San Francisco's Multimedia Gulch. With avante-garde experiments in VRML, Java, and other advanced programming languages (plenty of examples on the site), Construct is tied to the future of the medium. A roster of projects includes everything from the design of the BB King CD-ROM Web site to the creation of virtual reality models of nanomechanical devices for a recent molecular nanotechnology conference.
Overall Rating: 12
Martin's magic curiosities
URL: http://www.deltanet.com/users/mlewis/
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
We need more magicians in this world. I'm not talking Wiccans or Crowley devotees, but real magicians--top hat, magic wand, maybe even a bunny rabbit. This site, maintained by Martin Lewis, a San Francisco-based magician with "with long tapered fingers ideal for the performance of his art," is keeping the classical tradition alive! True prestidigitators will appreciate his 24 rules of magic to improve presentation and should closely follow his "Top Ten Ways To Prevent Exposure" of magical secrets to those not in the fold. Adding to Lewis' cred is his balding, tuxedoed image--much more than intriguing than Copperfield's leather jacket/glistening motorcycle shtick.
Overall Rating: 11
Unofficial Martha Stewart Home Page
URL: http://tear.cybercash.com/kerry/martha.html
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Upon first click, this page seems like an exercise in irony... But laugh not. We're talking true Martha Stewart fandom here. In fact, the phrase "goddess of the home" can be found in the opening paragraph. Then again, maybe Martha isn't such a bad icon for the hyperreal American home of beautiful flowers, tidy living rooms, and exquisite odors wafting from the kitchen. By exploring this site, you too can learn the secrets of being Martha! Start with the Martha Mega-FAQ, indulge yourself with a few "Ask Martha" columns posted here, and then grab your wire whisk and follow a link to the coveted oatmeal cranberry cookie recipe. Yum!
Overall Rating: 11
Martin's Magic Curiosities
URL: http://www.deltanet.com/users/mlewis/
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
We need more magicians in this world. I'm not talking Wiccans or Crowley devotees, but real magicians--top hat, magic wand, maybe even a bunny rabbit. This site, maintained by Martin Lewis, a San Francisco-based magician with "with long tapered fingers ideal for the performance of his art," is keeping the classical tradition alive! True prestidigitators will appreciate his 24 rules of magic to improve presentation and should closely follow his "Top Ten Ways To Prevent Exposure" of magical secrets to those not in the fold. Adding to Lewis' credability is his balding, tuxedoed image -- much more than intriguing than Copperfield's leather jacket/glistening motorcycle shtick.
Overall Rating: 11
Unofficial Martha Stewart Home Page
URL: http://tear.cybercash.com/kerry/martha.html
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Upon first click, this page seems like an exercise in irony... But laugh not. We're talking true Martha Stewart fandom here. In fact, the phrase "goddess of the home" can be found in the opening paragraph. By exploring this site, you too can learn the secrets of being Martha -- icon for the hyperreal American home of beautiful flowers and tidy living rooms! Start with the Martha Mega-FAQ, indulge yourself with a few "Ask Martha" columns posted here, and then grab your wire whisk and follow a link to the coveted oatmeal cranberry cookie recipe. Yum!
Overall Rating: 11
Culture Shock inc.
URL: http://revolution.cultureshock.com/csi/top.htm
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
A self-promo for a graphic design firm, this page doesn't have what it takes to stand out online where everyone is a master of typography and technical tricks. While the logos and icons are nice in a simple, post-Neville Brody sort of way, the plain layout and snoozy content doesn't make me want to sign on the dotted line. Culture Shock prides itself in its alleged ability to "generate and execute extraordinary ideas" -- so proud, in fact, that they put a ticker-tape at the bottom of the screen that broadcasts the claim over and over and over... Yeah, pretty extraordinary.
Overall Rating: 10
Welcome to the Virtual Garden
URL: http://pathfinder.com/@@EucPNeG6gAAAQISI/vg/
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Let's face it: you either have a green thumb, or you prefer plastic plants. I'm the latter. But still, the Virtual Garden is a wealth of information I wish I could put to use. The searchable plants encyclopedia is really amazing--learn to identify the three forms of lettuce, understand why sunflowers are often considered weeds, and discover if the Adiantum plant really has the power to thicken and curl hair. For the more diehard dirt dweller, the site has numerous online gardening books and magazines to peruse and even a directory of the finest botanical gardens in the world. Couldn't find any Cannabis Sativa growing tips on the site though.
Overall Rating: 8
Thee Joker's Funhouse
URL: http://www.escape.com/~joker/
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
First of all, hacking was not just an 80s teen fetish that ended when the Legion of Doom went to jail and Shimomura nailed Mitnick. It's alive and well in many basements and high school computer labs still following the maxim that "information wants to be free." This site is a basic guide to phone phreaking and hacking resources on the Web--2600, Phrack and other goldmines of technical information. Alhtough a bit young with an annoying amount slang, Thee Joker's Funhouse is a fine starting point if you want an introduction to the questionable activities of those lurking on the lines. Remember though: If the phone company calls, deny owning one.
Overall Rating: 7
Welcome to Toasted Berkeley Systems Online
URL: http://www.berksys.com/index.html
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Toasted is the online home to the mad minds behind those annoying flying toasters that everyone loves to hate. While not especially well-designed or tricked-out, the site is still worth a quick visit. Pick up a few new After Dark displays, stop by Cafe Slack for some free expert advice on love or lounge-wear, then order yerself some more questions for Berkeley Systems' aggressively addictive You Don't Know Jack trivia game. Of course, you can also buy an inflatable flying toaster for just $4.95. Seriously.
Overall Rating: 7
Lansdale Semiconductor Inc Wafer Fabrication of Integrated Circuits
URL: http://www.syspac.com/~lansdale/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Lansdale is a semiconductor company that's been cranking out silicon since the mid 60's. And unlike most high-tech companies which are busy pushing new products, Lansdale, an "after market technology" business, is manufacturing the semiconductors needed to keep your old workhorses running. This is a fine example of a corporate Web site without any pretense; it simply offers information about the company and its products. Press releases, mission statements, a company history, departmental information -- it's all here. If I ever need a Motorola ML7406 buffer/driver, I know who to call.
Overall Rating: 7
Architect Susan Grant Architectural Design
URL: http://members.aol.com/sgrantarch/index.html
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
This is a clean and elegant site promoting the services of a Chicago-based architecture and interior design firm. Grant's portfolio speaks for itself, but she also offers something important to any Web site--a service. Link to her "Steps For A Successful Building Project" for hints on how to save time, money and irritation when building or remodeling. As to why you should hire an architect instead of doing things yourself: "It is not enough to watch a few "This Old House" episodes."
Overall Rating: 7
Paper Airplane of the Month
URL: http://pchelp.inc.net/paper_ac.htm
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Long after the last cootie catcher of your grade school years has been recycled, paper airplanes are still guaranteed to amaze. Especially if you live on the third story. This cute site offers a new plane template every month to print, fold and let fly. The May 1995 design has always been my favorite--it comes back when you throw it. But given the infinite possibilities of a sheet of paper (and maybe a paperclip or two), the maintainers of this page could certainly do better than monthly updates. You can always take the matter into your own hands though-- hacking your own dead tree dirigible is always more fun than recreating that same old flying wing.
Overall Rating: 6
H P Lovecraft
URL: http://www.primenet.com/~dloucks/hplpage.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Cult horror novelist HP Lovecraft has found a worthy hidden home in this well designed and clear site. Of course a complete list of Lovecraft's tales is presented, but the most interesting elements of this site are the "readings" of Lovecraft's work. With the author's numerous references to numerous medieval texts containing secrets that "man was not meant to know," it can be difficult to discern between the actual dark manuscripts of our past and those that only have a history in Lovecraft's mind. Put simply, the Necronomicon is fiction. (We think. heh, heh, heh...)
Overall Rating: 6
Multimedia Connection
URL: http://www.tiac.net/users/mmc1/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Apparently, Multimedia Connection is a multimedia production company ready to transform your boring old content into something special with video, interactive kiosks, CD-ROMs, and the like. While the home page design is colorful and mildly attractive and the team may indeed be top notch, the services discussed and the language used on their site are not creative or original enough to grab the attention of a sophisticated Web denizen. My favorite pitch: "Are you an author of a book and would like to have your book offered on CD-ROM?" Yes! Please! More shovelware!!
Overall Rating: 6
The official FISHER SPACEPEN CO web site
URL: http://www.fisherpen.com/spacepen/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
I'm way into Fisher Space Pens! These things are so sleek and space-age that the astronauts use them. Write upside down, underwater, on the frozen surface of the moon, anywhere. All through the miracle of Fisher's Sealed Pressurized Ink Cartridge, explained with a neat-o diagram on their fluid, if simple, Web site. The site is in the early stages of development and still lacks content. But I'll keep checking back. Fisher has lots of stories to tell and the Web is an ideal outlet for them. If this sounds like a commercial, too bad. Go buy a Fisher Space Pen. Now.
Overall Rating: 6
BERKLAY AIR SERVICES CORP
URL: http://pages.prodigy.com/NY/serv99c/aircargo.html
Category: Corporate
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Meet Berklay Bernie, the HTML-crunching airline shipping expert! I really dig Berklay's site--no nonsense, no download waiting time, almost no formatting. It just gets the job done. Just like Bernie. In fact, if pigs learn to fly, Bernie promises that his family business "will book space on them!" Got a far-away motorcycle show coming up? You know who to call. With lots of family gossip, showbiz daydreams, and asterisks thrown into his site, Bernie earns my trust. As Bernie says, "Goodroads!"
Overall Rating: 4
Erack
URL: http://www.erack.com/
Category: Media
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Deb Richardson
Stunning layout and understated graphics are the stuff of which dreams are made. Erack offers up online companion zines for seven popular British mags -- Carworld, Empire, FHM, Image, Q, Select, and Total Sport. While the content is primarily tailored for those of us with *.uk addresses, there's still plenty of interesting stuff for non-Brits around the globe. Wander into Carworld and get the latest high performance or classic automotive news, or rifle through the plethora of random cinematic rumors and tidbits in Empire. All of the zines are updated daily so there promises to be new stuff for each and every visit.
Overall Rating: 17
World Wide Music
URL: http://www.WorldWideMusic.com/
Category: Shopping
Issue: 0197
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Deb Richardson
Offering some 200,000 samples from 40,000 different cassettes and CDs, this online music store uses the Real Audio plugin to fullest advantage, allowing visitors to download previews from each album in the virtual store. Each artist's entry also includes a full discography, a listing of all the songs on each album, and a small-but-usually-legible scan of the cover art. Also included is an online chat room and an automated service which keeps track of your musical preferences and provides "recommendations" upon request. A fast connection is a definate plus when visiting this site, and don't forget to download the latest Real Audio technology before you head out. One minor glitch - WWMusic was not accepting orders at the time of my visit.
Overall Rating: 17
George
URL: http://www.georgemag.com/hfm/index.html
Category: Media
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Deb Richardson
Slow. Really, really slow. This graphics-intensive site is the online companion to the hardcopy zine of the same title. If you have a fast connection and a love for U.S. politics, then this is the place to be. George offers a 'features' section which includes a letter from the editor-in-chief himself, a handy guide to finding your political representative, a cyberspatial tour of U.S. politics, and a trivia quiz. All in all, if you like the hardcopy, you'll probably love the site. Just be prepared to wait a bit, as some of the graphics are huge.
Overall Rating: 16
IWorld
URL: http://www.iworld.com/
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0197
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Deb Richardson
iWorld is Mecklermedia's stunning online newspaper which offers Internet news, information, and analysis by way of this content-intensive Web site. "Netday News" contains the latest headlines and notes from the wild world of the Net and the people who use it, with new stories and features every day of the week. The "Developers' Forum" is another mini-zine on the site with its own daily news items, features, tips and tricks for Web-developers of all experience levels. Anyone who wants to put a zine or newspaper on the Web should drop by iWorld to see how it's done. Double-plus-good job all 'round.
Overall Rating: 16
NetBC
URL: http://www2.netbc.com/netbc/netbc.acgi
Category: Media
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Deb Richardson
"The news, the net and life in B.C." NetBC advertises itself as "a fully interactive news service, designed expressly and exclusively for the exciting World Wide Web domain of the Internet." The 'fully interactive' part is certainly arguable, but overall this is a well- designed site with great writing and interesting content. Offered up are sporadic snippets of news about British Columbia, networking information, and a fantastic serial article entitled, "Urban Adventures in the West End." NetBC, while not as interactive as it's cracked up to be, is a great place to gain some insight into those occasionally wacky folks who live at the western end of Canada.
Overall Rating: 15
Living on Earth
URL: http://www.loe.org
Category: Media
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Deb Richardson
Living on Earth is a radio show which is broadcast on 'over 250 National Public Radio stations' in the U.S. The site offers transcripts of the radio show, including news, features, interviews, and a variety of other interesting items about ecological and environmental issues worldwide. The latest batch of goodies includes articles about the exposure of children to PCBs, the ecological damage caused by illegal cocaine plants, exotic tree-destroying beetles in NYC, and an interview with an inventor who recycles old tires into new furniture. Fascinating and weekly-updated content more than makes up for the shabby layout. Environmentalists of all ages will find this site of interest--even (or perhaps especially) if you're out of the radio broadcast's range.
Overall Rating: 15
Discount School Supply
URL: http://www.earlychildhood.com/dss.html
Category: Shopping
Issue: 0197
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Deb Richardson
This online shopping service is a great idea which is a potentially fantastic resource for overworked elementary school teachers all over the US. At first glance it seems to be 'yet-another-online-catalogue,' offering (at present) a limited number of children's arts-and-crafts supplies. DSS has added a twist, however - each product description is accompanied by a number of related project ideas and lesson outlines. Sadly, Discount School Supply will only send its full, hardcopy catalogue to US addresses (a problem since Mom is an elementary teacher in Canada), and while it offers a 1-800 number and a snail-mail address, there isn't a mailto to be found. Definately a good start to what could become a valuable source of ideas for those saints of our younger years.
Overall Rating: 15
Internet Sleuth
URL: http://www.isleuth.com/
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Deb Richardson
Yes folks, it's Yet Another Search Engine, only this time with a twist. The Internet Sleuth doesn't actually go through the trouble of searching the web-proper; instead, it sends the search request to other search engines -- sort of a search-engine clearing house. The problems? First, it just doesn't seem to work terribly well, and secondly, it's not at all intuitive. The searches I did came up with an assortment of links, only half of which were related to my request. Help information, when available, was brief and opaque. There is promise of an upgrade, however, so improvements are (hopefully) on the way.
Overall Rating: 15
Creating High Impact Documents
URL: http://home.mcom.com/assist/net_sites/impact_docs
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0197
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Deb Richardson
One of the many pages which reside on the Netscape home site, this one is a mini-tutorial on using inline images. The content here is technical and sparse, and goes on at length as to how to use varying formats without first telling you why. Included is information about GIF and JPEG formats, image scaling, and the low/high resolution trick. The "real world examples" section offers a single outdated link. For a page purportedly about high impact documents, it's surprisingly low impact, short on content, and out of date. There are far better style and instruction guides out there, so give this one a miss.
Overall Rating: 13
Newspage
URL: http://www.newspage.com
Category: Media
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Deb Richardson
I couldn't stop yawning. The only thing which broke up the endless black and blue text on default-gray background was the plethora of clickable ad-banners. I guess if you're interested in business news, and if you're willing to pay for most of it (Newspage is a primarily subscription service), this site could be a valuable resource. For the most part it's just boring: boring layout, boring graphics, boring content. The most exciting moment of the whole trip was when the authorization window popped up and promptly refused access to the 'protected stories' on the site. What a blast. Really.
Overall Rating: 12
Computer Craft
URL: http://www.computercraft.com/
Category: Shopping
Issue: 0197
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Deb Richardson
A sorrier site I have never seen. It starts off with the two things I most love to hate; the java-scripted scrolling status bar, and the pointlessly gratuitous use of frames. Every page is default text on default grey, with the monotony broken only by a passel of slightly-out-of-focus adbanners. The "menu" offers links to text-only advertisements for a variety of hardware-related companies in NJ, text-only information about how to advertise on this lump, and a couple of poorly written (and, you guessed it, text-only) articles about how to perform various home-surgeries on your beleaguered PC. In short, I can see no reason to visit and certainly no reason to return.
Overall Rating: 12
IGuide
URL: http://www.iGuide.com/
Category: Media
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
The on-line, interactive equivalent of TV Guide, IGuide is one of the most attractive and well-organized web sites I've seen. Not at all a rehash of old TV Guide stories, its pieces are original and distinct from the paper publication. IGuide goes out of its way to make its links interactive and incorporate multimedia elements. For example, its crossword puzzle area gives sound and video cues in addition to written ones. The page also features top news stories, reviews of Web sites and other media, as well as chat rooms and bulletin boards. Substantive, (though the material is light, mainstream fare), and eminently navigable, this is a great site.
Overall Rating: 18
Greek Mythology
URL: http://www.intergate.net/uhtml/.jhunt/greek_myth/greek_myth.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Having trouble remembering whether Cupid is the Greek or Roman name for the god of love? Don't fret. The Greek Mythology website is a hyperlink to all gods. It covers Greek and Roman mythology, heroes, stories and family trees. It also links to MIT's managed translations of the Greek The Iliad and The Odyssey (translated by Samuel Butler) by Homer, and the Roman The Aneid (translated by John Dryden) by Virgil. As site manager, John M. Hunt's goal is to distinguish the differences between Greek and Roman mythology. He does so with fine organizational skills and clarity, despite a few spelling errors. One significant difference between the Greeks and Romans that Hunt cites is "The Greeks were earlier."
Overall Rating: 17
LookUP
URL: http://www.lookup.com/
Category: Reference
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
LookUP! is a free, simple-to-use name to email retrieval service. In theory, one can input a name and address, click search, and then find that person's e-mail address. However, to retrieve an email address the person being sought after must be registered with LookUP! The site's members are privy to advanced search mechanisms, a Web site, and special e-mail programs that offer access to LookUP!'s e-mail database. It sounds great for now. But be warned, check the FAQs. The site's managers warn that LookUP! may charge members a fee in the future.
Overall Rating: 17
Arts Edge
URL: http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/
Category: Education
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Targeting students, teachers, and artists, ARTSEDGE is the Kennedy Center's Web presence. The site is packed with links for those wishing to network with others, those looking for work, those looking for art-related web sites, and those interested in all aspects of the arts ---- music, dance, theater, film, TV, the fine arts, literature, poetry, education, etc. A surfer could get lost for hours in this hyperlink metropolis. And there are as many links for adults as there are for children.
Overall Rating: 17
STUDIE'
URL: http://205.118.0.33/oes.html/studie'.html
Category: Education
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
It's so cute, with its rainbow colors, and to the point! Officially called School Teachers Using & Developing Internet Expertise or STUDIE' (pronounced Stoo'-dee-ay), the web site gives local educational information for the Alpine School District in Utah as well as general information for all educators seeking to learn about the Internet. STUDIE' provides links to HTML lessons, email emoticons and acronyms, and a growing list of educational hyperlinks. Links lead to sites on the core subjects, the arts, foreign language, health, government, religion, weather, shopping, newspapers and newsgroups.
Overall Rating: 17
Scrivenery Literary Awards
URL: http://www.hti.net/www/hwilliam/awards.htm
Category: Literature
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Here's one for English Lit. majors and prospective Jeopardy contestants. The Literary Awards section is part of Scrivenery's larger web site, which offers resources for fiction writers. The awards' site lists the winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Awards for Fiction, The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Booker Prize. Answer: He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1965. Question: Who is Michail A. Sholokhov, Alex?
Overall Rating: 17
Toni Morrison
URL: http://www.en.utexas.edu/~mmaynard/Morrison/home.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Toni Morrison, a visually pleasing web site, focuses largely on *Beloved*, the author's 1988 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. However, there are also links to Morrison's biography, photographs, and short narratives on all of her works. It includes quotes from the author, speaking about her art and should provide a rich experience for both avid Morrison fans and newcomers alike.
Overall Rating: 17
Greek Mythology
URL: http://www.intergate.net/uhtml/.jhunt/greek_myth/greek_myth.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Having trouble remembering whether Cupid is the Greek or Roman name for the god of love? Don't fret. The Greek Mythology website is a hyperlink to all gods. It covers Greek and Roman mythology, heroes, stories and family trees. It also links to MIT's managed translations of the Greek The Iliad and The Odyssey (translated by Samuel Butler) by Homer, and the Roman The Aneid (translated by John Dryden) by Virgil. As site manager, John M. Hunt's goal is to distinguish the differences between Greek and Roman mythology. He does so with fine organizational skills and clarity, despite a few spelling errors. One significant difference between the Greeks and Romans that Hunt cites is "The Greeks were earlier."
Overall Rating: 17
LookUP
URL: http://www.lookup.com/
Category: Reference
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
LookUP! is a free, simple-to-use name to email retrieval service. In theory, one can input a name and address, click search, and then find that person's e-mail address. However, to retrieve an email address the person being sought after must be registered with LookUP! The site's members are privy to advanced search mechanisms, a Web site, and special e-mail programs that offer access to LookUP!'s e-mail database. It sounds great for now. But be warned, check the FAQs. The site's managers warn that LookUP! may charge members a fee in the future.
Overall Rating: 17
Project Genesis
URL: http://www.torah.org/
Category: Religion
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
This Web site attempts to engage all Jews, Orthodox and non-religious alike, in a dialogue on scholarship and news pertaining to the Jewish faith. An attractive web site with an outer space motif, Project Genesis offers classes on the Torah, ethics, and halacha, or law. There are also hyperlinks to other Jewish Web sites and information about Jewish speakers, seminars, events, and educational programs throughout the U.S. and Israel.
Overall Rating: 17
Campus Crusade for Christ
URL: http://www.mdalink.com/CCC/index.html
Category: Religion
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Home to Christian ministries throughout the world, the Campus Crusade for Christ boasts a Web site that can be viewed with or without Shockwave enhancement. The site also includes a search engine, links to other CCC sites, and a summary of the ministry's perspective on the life of Jesus. It even includes HTML coding that allows you to add the group's logo to your own home page as a hot link.
Overall Rating: 17
Novagraphics Space Art
URL: http://www.novaspace.com/
Category: Art
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
From the fantastic worlds of Star Trek and Star Wars to the real-life voyages of NASA's Apollo missions, Novagraphics Space Art sells photographic quality paintings by -- what else? -- space artists. Images include imaginary depictions of planets orbiting moons, exploding stars, spiraling black holes, and a collage of portraits of American astronauts. The Web site also sells art work signed by astronauts and pieces created by Apollo 12 astronaut, Alan Bean.
Overall Rating: 17
ArtNow Gallery Guide
URL: http://www.gallery-guide.com/content/current/index.htm
Category: Art
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Heading to New York City and wondering what's so special about the Brooklyn Museum? Or how about the Kunsthalle Wein Museum in Vienna, Austria? Well, the ArtNow Gallery has biographies, telephone numbers and addresses of museums from throughout the world. Taken as a whole, ArtNow is an attractive site with links to museums, artists, and exhibitions. Although it has international information, at present, the site has more information on American artists, museums and exhibitions than anywhere else.
Overall Rating: 17
Chains
URL: http://found.cs.nyu.edu/andruid/CHAINS.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Equal parts art, history, culture, and riddle, Chain invites visitors to unlock a coded message while introducing the West African nation of Ghana. Complete with audio files of vu gbe (drum language), artistic collages, and video footage from Ghana, the site is a hodgepodge of interwoven sites and philosophical musings in an ofttimes weird presentation of flashing words and warnings. If you have the time and patience, it is worth it, but don't visit if you seek straight-forward material on African cultures.
Overall Rating: 17
Popular Mechanics
URL: http://homearts.com/pm/toc/00pmhpc1.htm
Category: Media
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
A web site for Do-It-Yourselfers (DIY) or folks who just like to read about how things are done. The site includes articles from the print publication of the same name and serves as a pitch for the newsstand version. The site also links to a search engine that combines resources from other Hearst publications such as Home and Garden, Good Housekeeping and Redbook. So, after you've spent hours reading about how to lay down a hardwood floor, you can hyperlink over to the search engine and plug in "curried lamb" for a dinner recipe.
Overall Rating: 17
MoJo Wire
URL: http://www.mojones.com/
Category: Media
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Named after labor organizer Mary Harris Jones (1830-1930), Mother Jones, or MoJo, is the kissing cousin of its paper publication, established in 1976. MoJo Wire is a political "magazine of investigation and ideas for independent thinkers," according to its information page. It bills itself as the first general interest magazine online, having established itself electronically in November 1993. Articles from issues dating back to that inception date are retrievable here. Features include Roger Ebert's and John Sayles' list of top 20 political films, pieces on the tobacco controversy, Newt Gingrich's ethics and Congress' major financial donors. There is also a search engine and bulletin board.
Overall Rating: 17
As-Sayf Oriental Dance
URL: http://www.ivo.se/as-sayf/englishindex.html
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
As-Sayf sets out to prove that Oriental dance is more than pretty smiles, shaking bellies and swaying hips. This site focuses on a five-member troupe of Swedish women, led by Kay Artle, who have studied dance in Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, England and the U.S. As-Sayf, a word meaning sword in Arabic, introduces various dance styles and music from the region, with original content and links to other Oriental dance sites on the net. You can also check out the many pictures of the As-Sayf dancers.
Overall Rating: 17
GardenNet
URL: http://trine.com/GardenNet/
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
So, you don't know when to properly propagate your geraniums? No problem. Cheryl Trine's web site, GardenNet, offers gardening tips, book reviews, a garden e-zine, and an on-line garden shop for avid gardeners and beginners. Trine plans to implement a search engine for the more than 1,000 entries in the question-and-answer area of her Web site. Even if you don't have a green thumb, you might enjoy reading some of the on-line essays in GardenNet magazine, which has more than 200 issues. The current issue and the first 20 issues are available for visitors to the site.
Overall Rating: 17
Key West Paradise
URL: http://www.keywestparadise.com
Category: Travel
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Vivid, low bandwidth images of tropical sunsets and crystal blue waters are sure to attract northerners, fed up with snow, to Key West Paradise. A beautiful site detailing the history of The Conch Republic, a "nation" of sun and paradise in the Florida Keys, as well as everything from accommodations to weather in Key West, Fla. Targeting potential tourists, this Web site has brief bios and price information on hot spots in the Keys. There's even a free beer coupon for Barefoot Bob's!
Overall Rating: 17
Scott's Page of Evil
URL: http://rampages.onramp.net/~scottgl/mainevil.htm
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Do not go to this site if you're easily offended. Scot attacks a wide range of targets here, including religion, politicians, the French, actress Andie MacDowell, and musical group *The Spin Doctors*, all with a dash of humor. He blames the latter for the downfall of alternative music, declaring, "They are an Evil [sic] that should be cleansed from the earth and they will be the first ones up against the wall when the revolution comes." Surprisingly, The Spin Doctors' bassist, Mark White, responds by thanking Scott for a link to the music group's home page. Evil is just a fun read, not spooky at all.
Overall Rating: 17
THE STUDY PLACE
URL: http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/academic/index.html
Category: Education
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
A budding philosopher's mecca, The Study Place is an online academic resource managed by the Institute for Learning Technologies of Columbia University. The college's faculty and doctoral candidates provide good critiques of ancient and modern philosophy. The site also includes links to brief biographies on ancient and modern philosophers including Aristotle, Dante, Descartes, et al.
Overall Rating: 16
The Master Works of Western Civilization
URL: http://www.eskimo.com/~masonw/gwwc.htm
Category: Literature
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Are you civilized? Are you sure? Well, for a crash course in the liberal arts without the tuition and fees, visit Mason West's home page. His is the mother of all syllabi! There are 31 printed pages worth of authors and their works here, many of which connect you via hyperlink to the content. Unfortunately, the site could use better organization. The lists, of which there are two, mainly feature ancient Greek, ancient Roman, European, and American works.
Overall Rating: 16
Gabriel Garcia Marquez-Macondo
URL: http://www.microserve.net/~thequail/libyrinth/garcia.marquez.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
In 1982, Gabriel Jose Garcia Marquez won the Nobel Prize for literature. A native of Colombia, he now lives in Mexico City and is considered a pioneer of style known as "magical realism." The site provides background information on the history of Colombia and examines how that history has influenced Marquez's fiction. It also includes notes on Marquez, a bibliography of his works, Marquez-related images and links to other Marquez Web sites.
Overall Rating: 16
Life is a Joke
URL: http://www.netreach.net/people/bishop/lifejoke.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
It's a large mail-order list of bizarre or comical literature. The title is a bit misleading. It is not a site of one-liners. One can find Your Revenge is in the Mail, a book about making someone's life hell by mail, for $10. Also, there are noted writers like William Vollman, author of *Whores for Gloria*, which is available in hard-cover for six dollars. There are even fan magazines on bouncing caskets and artwork dealing with "black blood," otherwise known as coffee. Nearly all items are under $20, and most items are under $10.
Overall Rating: 16
WPA Life Histories
URL: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/wpahome.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Originally a government-sponsored Folklore Project of the Federal Writers' Project for the U.S. Works Progress (later Work Projects) Administration (WPA) from 1936-40, this web site gives the history of the WPA and provides an excellent search engine to scour the some 2,900 works from that era. In the late '30s, more than 10,000 writers from across the country wrote biographies on Americans, of various ethnic and religious groups, occupations, and regions. The result is a first-hand glimpse of 1930's Americana.
Overall Rating: 16
Augustine
URL: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/augustine.html
Category: Religion
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
In Latin or English, this site gives insight into the life of St. Augustine, who, in about 400 AD, wrote one of the earliest guides to Christian living and beliefs. Augustine, the saint, is credited with describing God in terms of the Holy Trinity. Augustine, the web site, includes a biography, English and Latin versions of Augustine's beliefs, and ancient artwork depicting the early church lawmaker at work.
Overall Rating: 16
The Abayudaya Jews of Uganda
URL: http://www.intac.com/PubService/uganda/
Category: Religion
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Perhaps you've studied Ethiopian Jews or heard about the Cochin Jews of India, but have you heard about the Abayudaya Jews of Mbale, Uganda? Well, until 1992, this web site's manager, Matt Meyer, hadn't either. But after visiting Kenya and meeting a Ugandan Jew, Meyer went to Mbale. In this web site, Meyer chronicles Ugandan Jewish history, incorporates music by Ugandan Jews, requests donations to buy a Torah. The site also includes excerpts from Meyer's journal and photos of the Abayudaya.
Overall Rating: 16
USC Muslim Students Association Islamic Server
URL: http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/
Category: Religion
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Everything one could ever want to know about Islam is at this web site, including access to an English translation of the Koran, and a beginner's guide to understanding Muhammad, pillars of the faith, and Allah. The site gives an Islamic perspective on the differences and similarities between Judaism and Christianity. MSA criticizes many other groups claim to follow Islam. MSA is a campus organization that can be found throughout the U.S.
Overall Rating: 16
Information about Zoroastrianism
URL: http://palette.ecn.purdue.edu/~bulsara/ZOROASTRIAN/zoroastrian.html
Category: Religion
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
There are more than a million followers of the ancient Persian prophet Zarathushtra, known to the Greeks as Zoroaster. The web site chronicles the history of the prophet, Ahura Mazda or "Wise Lord," and the faith. It also includes photos and essays concerning the problems facing modern-day Zoroastrians.
Overall Rating: 16
The Holy See
URL: http://www.vatican.va/
Category: Religion
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Get the latest from Pope John Paul II at The Holy See Web site. Most of the information is available in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian and Portuguese. There is access to The Holy See Press Office, Catholic doctrine and a place to post messages to priests. Also, there are photos of the pontiff.
Overall Rating: 16
The Rapture Index
URL: http://www.novia.net/~todd/
Category: Religion
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Todd Strandberg analyzes Biblical prophecy as manifest in the latest news, such as the Ebola virus arriving in Texas and volcano activity in the Caribbean, while keeping tabs on modern-day antichrists like John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Louis Farrakhan, Bill Gates, and Barney the Dinosaur. An interesting site that weaves news and Apocalyptic assertions with wit and sarcasm.
Overall Rating: 16
Dys-Functional Pottery of John Britt
URL: http://www.erinet.com/claydude/britt1.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Just 'cause it looks like a cup, doesn't mean you should drink from it. Especially if it's a Dys-Functional mug by John Britt called "Honey, I believe you've cut your lip." Britt's site consists of artistic teapots, cups, jars, cans, bottles and chairs. His "dysfunctional" method of creation involves making the masterpieces, then breaking them apart, then putting them back into functional forms. Although Britt offers means to e-mail him, there is no indication that his works are for sale.
Overall Rating: 16
Handshake Project
URL: http://www.mcs.net/~artic/home.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Packed with links that tend to make a visitor go "hmmm!" or "huh?," Handshake Project suffers from a lack of good copy editing. While there are some promising elements here -- even hints of a great site, (what with the continuous video of a handshake and analysis of personality profiles based on the shape and size of a hand) -- its disorganization and syntactical errors are too glaring to overlook. The site links to essays on the handshaking techniques of white-collar businessmen, a global look at the act of handshaking, the transmission of viruses, and a seemingly unrelated religion page. Speaking of copy editing, I don't think the Muslims consider Jesus a "profit." A *prophet* maybe, ...
Overall Rating: 16
Art Crimes
URL: http://www.gatech.edu/desoto/graf/
Category: Art
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
It's not about who is trying to steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. It's about the world of graffiti, baby. Featuring urban scrawl on trains, city walls, and digital graffiti from American cities, not to mention street art from around the world, this site provides up-to-date information on graffiti shows and interviews with graffiti artists.
Overall Rating: 16
Sniper Country
URL: http://www.net-connect.net/~daveed/
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Sniper Country, managed by military trained snipers, highlights the qualities of a good sharp-shooter and provides an area for these sure-shots to assemble and share their expertise. Sniper Country examines the history of such "hall of shame" snipers as John F. Kennedy assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, and "hall of fame" sure-shot, Carlos Hathcock, who won the Wimbledon Cup for high-powered rifle marksmanship. The site explains the appropriate mental attitude, equipment, and physical well-being of a military trained sniper. It even includes poetry submissions by snipers. Hmmm...
Overall Rating: 16
Inns & Outs: The Bed & Breakfast Source
URL: http://www.innsandouts.com/
Category: Travel
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Whether you're a corporate executive seeking a secluded nook away from the conference or a budding entrepreneur with dreams of being a hotelier, Inns & Outs has information on about 15,000 bed and breakfasts and inns in North America. By plugging state or province names into a search engine, travelers can retrieve phone numbers and addresses for b & b's in that region. Inn owners can benefit from help areas, advertisements selling property or equipment, cookbooks, and a chat forum. Inns & Outs does not include information on hotel/motel chains. The site also includes "Win A Trip!" contests and bed & breakfast book reviews.
Overall Rating: 16
Welcome to Masala
URL: http://www.millworks.com/masala.htm
Category: Travel
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
A truly *mast mast* (Hindi for "very cool") Web site that gives insight into the pop culture and on-line businesses of India. Read about Bollywood, India's answer to Hollywood in Bombay, it's hottest movies and rising stars. There's an on-line glossary of pop Hindi expressions. Also, listen to tidbits of Punjabi beats that have become the rave of *desi* (native Indian) clubheads in London. A section called Saffron details Indian on-line businesses and companies seeking global business connections. There are also links to Calcutta's "intellectual, romantic and night-life." All this and some garam-garam ("Hot! as in really HOT!!!") recipes make the site complete.
Overall Rating: 16
Travels with Samantha
URL: http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/samantha/index.html
Category: Travel
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Phil Greenspun is one of those people who you're going to love to hate. A computer nerd who teaches and advises electrical engineering and computer science undergraduates, he also travels extensively, takes magnificent photographs, and writes with flair. His Travels with Samantha Web site is an on-line account of the summer he spent traveling throughout North America. There story has beautiful women, fighting bears, francophone Canadians, Harley-riding North Dakotans, flood survivors, and people with AIDS. Interestingly, Greenspan's home page begins with others' criticism of his writing and "poor attempt to reflect America."
Overall Rating: 16
Zola's Home Page
URL: http://www.halcyon.com/zola/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
A potpourri of links from the mind of Zola! There are nearly 100 links immersed in Zola's narrative about a trip to France. Zola scolds net surfers for spending hours in front of a computer instead of enjoying RL (real life) adventures such as playing Frisbee, golf or paintball (all three of which she provides links to). She also has links to claim-to-fame Web sites such as The Fishcam and Capt. Kirk Sing-a-long. If you don't feel like zipping from home page to home page, just read some of the colorful quotes Zola provides from the likes of 18th century poet Novalis to Mahatma Gandhi.
Overall Rating: 16
Flags of the World
URL: http://www.cesi.it/flags/
Category: Reference
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
A none to glamorous website with more than 400 flags of nationalities, ideas, sexual orientation, ethnicities, politics, geographical areas, and supposed fictional societies found throughout the world. While the idea is good, the site lacks uniformity in content. While a hyperlink to Nazi flags will lead one to gifs of several flag types and explanations on the use of red and white colors, a hyperlink to Ethiopia's flag contains a gif of the flag and nothing more. Furthermore, the managers of the site do not guarantee the veracity of the information provided by their contributors.
Overall Rating: 15
ISO Online
URL: http://www.iso.ch/
Category: Reference
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
One can access the International Organization for Standardization's homepage in English or French. The ISO is an international group that sets and agrees upon the quality of products, materials or services that are offered or sold globally. They standardize everything from shipbuilding and food technology to condom durability. Although plagued by technological jargon, the site is information packed with the ISO's history, long- and short-term goals, organizational structure, and vision. Unfortunately, if one wants ISO literature on the standardization of surgical instruments, the site would hyperlink that person to an address and telephone number for further information.
Overall Rating: 15
SOMA-web
URL: http://www.primenet.com/~matthew/huxmain.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Matthew, the site's manager, makes one mistake in his web site on English novelist Aldous Huxley (1894-1963): He reverses the print, making the background color black and most of the text white. Unfortunately, when the information is sent to the printer, the machine interprets everything as white, thereby making the print invisible. Nevertheless, Matthew provides an entertaining look at the novelist best known for Brave New World, the 1932 satirical work about a society controlled by technology. Also, it contains a hypnotic photo of Huxley and links to other Huxley-related sites.
Overall Rating: 15
Flags of the World
URL: http://www.cesi.it/flags/
Category: Reference
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
A none to glamorous website with more than 400 flags of nationalities, ideas, sexual orientation, ethnicities, politics, geographical areas, and supposed fictional societies found throughout the world. While the idea is good, the site lacks uniformity in content. While a hyperlink to Nazi flags will lead one to gifs of several flag types and explanations on the use of red and white colors, a hyperlink to Ethiopia's flag contains a gif of the flag and nothing more. Furthermore, the managers of the site do not guarantee the veracity of the information provided by their contributors.
Overall Rating: 15
ISO Online
URL: http://www.iso.ch/
Category: Reference
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
One can access the International Organization for Standardization's homepage in English or French. The ISO is an international group that sets and agrees upon the quality of products, materials or services that are offered or sold globally. They standardize everything from shipbuilding and food technology to condom durability. Although plagued by technological jargon, the site is information packed with the ISO's history, long- and short-term goals, organizational structure, and vision. Unfortunately, if one wants ISO literature on the standardization of surgical instruments, the site would hyperlink that person to an address and telephone number for further information.
Overall Rating: 15
YellowDog
URL: http://www.discordia.org/~keeper/YellowDog.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
The manager of this site seeks to add artistic flair to Macs and PCs with a customized or Elfquest comic desktop and icon designs. YellowDog also does fliers, brochures, menus, etc. for cash or barter. The site is also a meeting place for Elfquest fans.
Overall Rating: 15
Art Indices International
URL: http://www.artindices.com/
Category: Art
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Art Indices brings together an art gallery and an interior designer with the goal of delivering art to the office or home. The home page links to the gallery's and designer's pages. While the site is filled with information and services, the presentation is pedestrian and gray.
Overall Rating: 15
Monk
URL: http://www.monk.com/Monk/
Category: Media
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Monk is where journalism meets the nitty gritty cities of America. For the most part, it is the travelogue of the monks, Jim and Mike, who wander from city to city detailing the latest in street lingo, regional drug use, drag queen escapades, and underground sites and sounds. The monks' tales feature titles like Freakin' In Frisco and Portland Kicks Butt. Not all of the articles are written by the monks, but all explain the goings-on in the cities the monks have visited. Unfortunately, the Web site does not contain anything in the way of video clips or sound.
Overall Rating: 15
Omni Online
URL: http://www.omnimag.com/
Category: Media
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Artistically, Omni's home page is beautiful. The artwork leads the eye to a few top stories and a bulleted list of the Web site's sections. On the downside, the sections and content do not differ much from the newsstand version. Hyperlinks to several of its sections yield in-depth science articles and science fiction, with pictures that take much too long to load. Printed out, an Omni interview of astronomer Alan Stern was 17 pages. Who has time to read this online?
Overall Rating: 15
Illini Juggling and Unicycle Club
URL: http://www.uiuc.edu/ph/www/juggling
Category: Pasttimes
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
The Illini Juggling and Unicycle Club favors Sun Microsystem's HotJava Web Browser. So, be advised: if you don't have it, you won't be able to see any of the juggling animation. Illini offers step-by-step instructions for beginning jugglers, both able-bodied and disabled, of all ages. The group meets in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, on a weekly basis to practice everything from basic juggling skills, with three balls, to advanced skills, with 5 flaming, poisoned chainsaws. Just kidding. The site also provides links to other juggling sites and festivals.
Overall Rating: 15
Madeleine's Homepage
URL: http://www.wineasy.se/bjornt/madde.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Madeleine's Homepage is not without its problems. Admittedly, Madeleine Endre keeps her visitors posted on what doesn't work at her site, such as the counter and some of her pictures. However, what does work is her Lipstick Page. Categorizing cosmetic companies by country, providing names and styles of lip wear that models and actresses use, and providing on-line color swatches of everything from Clinque's "Applesauce" to Urban Decay's "Roach" lipsticks, Endre's Web site has lots of information on pucker colors and care. Hers is a great site to visit if you want to change lipsticks without being at the cosmetics counter.
Overall Rating: 15
SyddWare
URL: http://www.clark.net/pub/jrsouza/realhome.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
His name is Jeff, but call him Sydd. Jeffrey Souza is the Web designer for SyddWare, a home page that provides links to C Code Unix scripts and free application programs. (Yeah, technical stuff.) Sydd also has this thing for rubber duckies, pigs, cows and bugs. So, once you're done retrieving scripting tools, hop over to Sydd's Internet Zoo, which promises to have some fun attractions. SyddWare is easy to follow, but, aside from a few rubber duckies and bugs, it lacks graphics.
Overall Rating: 15
Information Please Almanac
URL: http://www.hti.umich.edu/misc/ipa/index.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Anyone with an Internet address outside the University of Michigan or Ann Arbor, Michigan, will be DENIED ACCESS to this website. Chris Powell explained in an email message that his university has "a license with the [Information Please Almanac] publisher, INSO [of Boston, MA], that limits to whom we may provide access." Visitors will get a list of 54 subject areas, such as taxes, space and geography, that most cannot access. From a researcher's perspective, this denial thing stinks worse than rotten eggs. Yet, from a corporate "buy my license, see my website" view, it is a smart move.
Overall Rating: 14
ShowBiz Ltd
URL: http://www.showbizltd.com/
Category: Film
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Apparently, there's no business like advertising. Every hyperlink leads one to lists, mailing labels, or a video for sale. Billed as "Your Connection to The Entertainment Industry," ShowBiz claims to have Hollywood's top agents, casting directors, personal managers, and ShowBiz Kids on file. However, its web site delivers sales-pitch hype without goodies (no games, no pictures, no freebies, nothing). On the upside, nice font.
Overall Rating: 14
NCRVE Home Page
URL: http://vocserve.berkeley.edu/
Category: Education
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
While The National Center for Research in Vocational Education's (NCRVE) Web site could stand some good editing and a dose of spirit, it nevertheless provides useful information and progress reports on an alternative form of secondary education. Based at the University of California, the NCRVE Web site is linked to documents on the history and the future of vocational education, all organized like a standard high school report and about as interesting.
Overall Rating: 14
RAND Institute on Education and Training
URL: http://www.rand.org/centers/iet/
Category: Education
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
IET is part of Rand's, a non-profit public policy research organization, larger web site. The site's purpose is to improve American's public policy through research and analysis, and to train policy analysts. IET provides links to summaries on more than 55 Rand research papers. Some topics covered include worldwide communications, economics, education, crime, NATO, housing, game theory, terrorism, and water resources. Full-text for some of these papers are free, others are not.
Overall Rating: 14
Technology and Learning: A Planning and Implementation Resource
URL: http://www.ncrel.org/ncrel/tandl/techandlearn.html
Category: Education
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
This is a guide for learning technology, taking readers from the goal setting and initial research stages to the implementation and revision for improvement stages. It is not light reading. It offers diagrams and provides information in an outline format.
Overall Rating: 14
Theatre Education Literature Review
URL: http://www.aaae.org/theatre/thfront.html
Category: Education
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Theatre... is a home page of 59 theater-educational questions or topics with links to their brief answers or explanations, including footnotes. Simple. Kent Seidel, of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program of the University of Cincinnati, asks questions, such as "Why study theatre?," or introduces topics, such as "Theatre for at-risk students," as the points relate to scholars' views of theater's positive effect in education.
Overall Rating: 14
Information Please Almanac
URL: http://www.hti.umich.edu/misc/ipa/index.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Anyone with an Internet address outside the University of Michigan or Ann Arbor, Michigan, will be DENIED ACCESS to this website. Chris Powell explained in an email message that his university has "a license with the [Information Please Almanac] publisher, INSO [of Boston, MA], that limits to whom we may provide access." Visitors will get a list of 54 subject areas, such as taxes, space and geography, that most cannot access. From a researcher's perspective, this denial thing stinks worse than rotten eggs. Yet, from a corporate "buy my license, see my website" view, it is a smart move.
Overall Rating: 14
Buddhist Studies
URL: http://coombs.anu.edu.au/WWWVL-Buddhism.html
Category: Religion
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
An unattractive, boring site that just happens to have more than 150 links to some really visually appealing sites on Guatama Buddha, Buddhism, and Asian studies. The links are not necessarily listed in a cohesive fashion, but it's a great resource for those with patience.
Overall Rating: 14
Staten Island Online
URL: http://www.walrus.com/~smithj/
Category: Travel
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
A less-than-enthusiastic site, Staten Island Online is more of a sales pitch for site designer Johnathon Mark Smith's Internet consulting and Web designing business than it is an informational spot for the borough. There are a few local ads, train and ferry schedules, and links to weather forecasts. Don't expect to learn about Richmond County's history or people here though. In fact, those interested in JavaScript may more find more of interest here than folks curious about Staten Island. There are a number of book reviews and chat areas on the subject, though the site itself does not make effective use of it.
Overall Rating: 14
Flicker
URL: http://www.chapel-hill.nc.us/flicker/
Category: Film
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Though named after a bimonthly film festival in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Flicker's web site is anything but festive. The web site provides filmmakers with information on Flicker's film festivals and types of Kodak film, including Super 8 and Regular 8 film. Also, there are first-person narratives of when so-in-so got his first Super 8 camera or how much so-in-so loves "the rich color of Kodachrome ..." Unfortunately, for a web site devoted to a visual art, the graphics are poor.
Overall Rating: 13
Don Delillo Web Site
URL: http://edziza.arts.ubc.ca/english/500web/peter/Delillo.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Sorry, but this site is dead. There is too much gray matter. The web site gives an unenthusiastic list of Don Delillo's fictional works, critiques, and links to other Delillo sites. Unfortunately, something as basic as a biography is missing. The research team at the University of British Columbia's English department could do a much better job.
Overall Rating: 13
Jim Pollack Vietnam Art
URL: http://members.aol.com/jimm844224/vietart1.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
There's art in war, but don't expect to find the stunning flora and fauna of Vietnamese jungles here. Jim Pollack's art -- pen-and-ink and dullish watercolors -- are of soldiers on the front line. Pollack's works are among several Vietnam veteran paintings that are part of the U.S. Army Military History War Collection in Washington, D.C. The site contains links to army documents on the arts, news articles, war art and some of Pollack's non-war art. Like war itself, however, the artwork and site are bleak.
Overall Rating: 13
Beauty?
URL: http://www.chiatday.com/cd.www/invent/art/beauty2.html
Category: Art
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Beauty? How about, "Boring?" This site delves into the mind of photographer Jill Greenberg and her poetic notion of beauty. It contains a poem with a few words that link to distorted photographs of a woman. After a while, the photos all look the same, and the files are huge; those with slow connections, be warned: it'll take patience to appreciate the work.
Overall Rating: 13
Spiegel Directions
URL: http://www.spiegel.com
Category: Shopping
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Dorrit Tulane Walsh
It's slick, speedy, sightly, and. . .Spiegel? That's right, reliable old Spiegel has gone upscale, and produced a Web site to match their new image. Starting with the slogan, "shopping @ the speed of life," not only can you view full descriptions of products (Barbie even has her own section!), but you can also search for a particular item, see what's on sale, order online, and even learn how the family Spiegel got its name. Not all catalog items are here, but it's a good selection to start with--plus, you can order anything from the catalog online, too.
Overall Rating: 17
The Odd Music Page
URL: http://www.amexpub.com/jbatutis/noddmusic/oddmusic.html
Category: Music
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Dorrit Tulane Walsh
If you scour bargain bins for records like, "The New York Harp Ensemble, Volume II," you'll have a field day here. Webmaster Joe Batutis offers an eclectic collection of "unusual releases on CD," that opens with Herb Alpert and closes with British TV themes. In between you'll find everything from spoken word artists and sound effects to movie stars singing. Click a tiny CD cover, and you get a mini-description and short sample (.au format). The only thing missing is label info, in case you want to try and track down one of these CDs for your own collection.
Overall Rating: 16
American Kurdish Info Network
URL: http://burn.ucsd.edu/%7Eakin/
Category: Political
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Dorrit Tulane Walsh
Although Kurds, "the world's largest stateless people," inhabit a few countries, this site's focuses those in Turkey. The site is overflowing with information on the Kurdish struggle against the Turkish government. AKIN's goals are clearly stated, and you can also look through numerous articles (many from major media sources), including information on Leyla Zana, the first Kurdish woman elected to the Turkish Parliament, who's currently serving a treason sentence for attending a conference on Turkish human rights violations. There's also a section (click on the map of Kurdistan) of basic facts and figures, and some disturbing photos of Kurd persecution.
Overall Rating: 16
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
URL: http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/spg-l/mumia002.htm
Category: Political
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Dorrit Tulane Walsh
Mumia Abu-Jamal is black activist and journalist who was convicted of shooting a Pennsylvania policeman in 1982, and sentenced to death for it in 1995. His supporters (including celebrities and politicians from all over the globe) want him off death row, and here you can discover why. The many "artikels" not only cover the current happenings of the case, but also outline the background. The focus here though, is on what believers can do to help, and the suggested resources are extensive.
Overall Rating: 15
A Personal Diary of The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (1989 - Present)
URL: http://www.birzeit.edu:80/diary/
Category: Political
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Dorrit Tulane Walsh
Nigel Parry, a British writer & photographer, has been living and working in Palestine's West Bank since 1989, and here he documents day-to-day life in the university community of Birzeit. The diary entries (many include photos) are a crap shoot, as they vary greatly in content. Some are boring, like the discussion about license plates, others riveting--in particular, an account of civilians tortured by the Palestinian Security Service (PSS). But as a whole, the diary offers a view of life in the West Bank that you probably won't find anywhere else and that's makes it worthwhile.
Overall Rating: 15
The NetCheck Commerce Bureau
URL: http://www.netcheck.com/
Category: Shopping
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Dorrit Tulane Walsh
Think of NetCheck as a Better Business Bureau for the Internet. Companies pay to join and get listed here, and, with those fees, NetCheck is able to provide you, Ms./Mr. Average Consumer, with free services like handling complaints against shady Internet vendors, site copyright violations, and get-rich-quick scam spam e-mail. (There's a form right here to file any of the listed complaints.) They also keep a file of complaints, searchable-by-company against their members. Seems like an OK idea, if it works--and the only way to know that is to try it.
Overall Rating: 15
Music dot Apple dot Com
URL: http://music.apple.com/
Category: Shopping
Issue: 0197
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Dorrit Tulane Walsh
"Rotten apple?" Nah, that's just too easy. This site's a tease--really good looking, but you quickly discover there isn't a smidgen of substance behind the facade. Allegedly "some of the coolest music known to man," is here, but all I found was an opportunity to join a "Digital Party List," which brings you dates of QuickTime Live events via e-mail. "Find the Music" is all the CDs nominated for Grammies in 1995. Hey, Apple--the Grammies were given out last February! No sound samples, either; clicking a CD just shoots you over to CDNow. Calling Dr. Kevorkian. . . AESTHETICS: 3 CONTENT: 1 TECH SAVVY: 2 Pat--If the Dr. Kevorkian remark's too much, you can change to: Please, put this site out of its misery.
Overall Rating: 15
Word Mill Used Book Store
URL: http://www.wordpr.com/book/
Category: Shopping
Issue: 0197
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Dorrit Tulane Walsh
Here you can order up to 5 used paperback and hardcover books--all $2.50 each--and you don't even have to pay until after you get them. The selection isn't huge, but is adequate; plus they carry fiction and non-fiction. BUT, the bad news is that the postage is hefty, delivery takes up to a month, and some of the plot descriptions (e.g. The Women's Room) aren't very accurate, so you better already know what the book's about. This site's worth checking out if you're in the hinterlands, but city-dwellers can probably do better at a local used book emporium.
Overall Rating: 15
Adam's Audio Archive
URL: http://pagraphics.com/~adam/
Category: Music
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Dorrit Tulane Walsh
I was excited when I first opened this site and found that not only was it OK-looking and speedy, but it featured music samples--including theme songs from TV shows and movies. But my initial thrill mutated into something between annoyance and shock when I saw his (RealAudio) selections. I'm guessing Adam is about 14, because TV shows include gems like "Beverly Hills 90201," and cartoons; "Judge Dredd," begins the list of movies; and the "Music" section is basically just a tribute to Smashing Pumpkins. The Webmaster gets an "A" for effort, but--unless you're a teen--content is "C-."
Overall Rating: 14
Wilson and Alroy's Record Reviews
URL: http://student-www.uchicago.edu/users/alr2/WAreview.html
Category: Music
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Dorrit Tulane Walsh
Okay, Wilson and Alroy may be nobodies, but they're musicians and that immediately ups their credibility. They review older albums/CDs, and Alroy is a "stodgy 60s addict," so there's a huge collection of 60s artists included, like the Beatles and the too-often-forgotten Zombies. Reviews vary in detail, but many contain trivia tidbits plus links to other sites on the artist, and should enlighten anyone--except maybe fellow opinionated rock know-it-alls. Definitely check out the accurate "60s Rock Overview" and "20 Essential Rock Records." My only disappointment was not being able to access the samples from their very own demo tape. AESTHETICS: 3 CONTENT: 3 TECH SAVVY: 2
Overall Rating: 14
Bubba's Bazaar
URL: http://www.intro.net/free.html
Category: Shopping
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Dorrit Tulane Walsh
A better name for this links a-go-go compilation is Bubba's Boring Bazaar, as there are only two themes: free stuff and babes. Bubba provides different categories of freebies, but some items listed as totally free aren't, numerous links are broken, and many listed items are just, well, stupid. His "Hot Links" are anything but, as most are insipid "babe" pages--you know, babes in lingerie, babes in hot tubs, supermodel babes. The only remotely redeeming feature is his links to other freebie sites; thankfully, most are better than Bubba.
Overall Rating: 13
Exploratorium Exploranet
URL: http://www.exploratorium.edu
Category: Education
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Leave it to the Exploratorium, San Francisco's renowned interactive science exhibit, to come up with a site as informative and creative as Exploranet. Surf through hundreds of cool science links, check out the science behind the news in The Why Files, follow along with the onscreen tutorial of a cow's eye dissection (one of the Exploratorium's most popular exhibits), or take on any number of show-stopping brain puzzlers, niftily reconfigured for the Web. There are dozens of do-this-at-home recipes to help you recreate Exploratorium fun at home. There is a lot here, so give yourself plenty of time investigate.
Overall Rating: 18
Cleveland Live!
URL: http://www.cleveland.com/index.html
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Welcome to the uncharted realms of Cleveland, Ohio. Learn about the darker side of a town that "defies travel by public transportation" in the Forbidden City. Well-written nightlife information abounds in the Club Crawler and Dark Melodies pages. Cleveland never seemed so appealing. The Weather section links to international forecasts and The Old Farmer's Almanac, and Tribe fans have a lot to choose from on their own site (as marked by the grinning "redman" of the team's emblem -- an insult to Native Americans everywhere). Overall, excellent use of nicely designed retro graphics, loads of information, and smart assembly. Forget the Big Apple or Baghdad by the Bay...Cleveland, here, looks like the destination of choice.
Overall Rating: 18
The World of Allen Toney
URL: http://webpages.marshall.edu/~jtoney/
Category: Art
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Allen Toney is hailed as one of the most innovative computer artists of his day. But it goes further than that. Nightmares, day sweats, bad acid, and underdone potatoes are as much a part of the scenery here as neo-classical Catholicism and iconography rendered as only a recovering Papist could render it. The images are, by turns, rich and oily--liquid mercury in a twister--and mythical/mathematical. Take a walk through the gallery. If you can take it, "Dream Deeper," if not, you can "Wake Up" at any time. One can only imagine what Toney sees when he closes his eyes in the dark.
Overall Rating: 18
aRtsLab
URL: http://sgva-serv1.ucsd.edu/~art-slab/
Category: Art
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
ARtsLab, UCSD's Visual Arts Department site, offers online exposure to a host of artists, visions, and themes. The Institute of Sociometry page, housing a rich variety of subchurches, secret societies, and guerrilla artists, is the aRtsLab high point, with links to the San Francisco Cacophony Society and the Luther Blisset Home Page. Learn about Neoists, Psychogeography, and the decline of Venice. You can search the aRtsLab index by artist or subject. How 'bout Apparatus Luscious or Dadatorial? Thought-provoking projects are presented with a dose of self-indulgence, the inevitable mixed bag of art school. Well worth the visit.
Overall Rating: 18
Africa: The Art of a Continent
URL: http://artnetweb.com/guggenheim/africa/index.html
Category: Art
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Africa: The Art of a Continent is an exhibition celebrating "the extraordinary contribution of the African continent to the world's visual culture." Don't despair if you can't get to the Guggenheim to see it in time; the site alone would be worth the price of admission. An interactive map takes you to each region in Africa, discussing its artistic characteristics in particular. In-depth descriptions tell as much about African history as its art, and photographs make this almost as rich as a walk through. "Africa in New York," the citywide portion of the exhibit, includes photography, film, music, dance, symposia, and lectures. It's a beautifully designed site with engaging text. Hang out here and learn something.
Overall Rating: 18
NetNoir
URL: http://www.netnoir.com/index.html
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
A site for anyone from any walk of life who is interested in Afrocentric culture, NetNoir Online combines a variety of sections -- Spotlight, Lifestyle, Community, and Empowerment -- with search engines and great links to related sites. The site is beautifully designed and packed with content, providing visitors with articles on everything from Hip Hop to investment opportunities. The self-declared "Soul of Cyberspace," NetNoir seeks to build an online community while informing visitors about local events, outstanding personalities, entertainment, technology news, and resources.
Overall Rating: 18
The Velvet Underground
URL: http://spider.media.philips.com/vu/
Category: Music
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
This site is big on information in a straight forward, nonfanatical way. Much of the text is taken from David Fricke's 20-thousand word essay on the history and legacy of the Velvet Underground, which is included with the Peel Slowly and See album. The site includes profiles of the band members and a full discography. Even if you're a long time fan of the *Velvet Underground*, this site is useful in exploring the background and the influences that colored their music, and contributed to their lasting impact.
Overall Rating: 18
MusicWest
URL: http://www.musicwest.com/
Category: Music
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Finally, a music site that focuses on alternative bands and cultural issues while at the same time boasting truly creative design, engaging text, great graphics, and *beaucoup* information. MusicWest appears to have been constructed to mark a interdisciplinary conference that went down in May. However, the conference and its concerns live on in this site covering everything from *No Means No* and *DOA* to censorship issues, methods of taking on the music industry, and links to record labels like C/Z and Wrong Records. Very clever, very insightful, MusicWest is a site I'll be revisiting often.
Overall Rating: 18
Editor and Publisher Interactive
URL: http://www.mediainfo.com/edpub/
Category: Professional
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: Yes
Author: Emily Soares
Editor and Publisher Interactive is a dream come true for anyone in the journalism game or anyone interested in any aspect of the publishing scene. The site combines an online version of Editor & Publisher , the print magazine, with links to a wide array of reference sites, accessed from a Research page that itself is worth the bookmark. You'll find home pages for newspaper companies, free news services, research facilities, press associations, wire services, major online services,.... If it has to do with news, it's here. Looking for an online newspaper? As of this writing the E&P Interactive Online Newspaper database comprises 1521 entries. The News Page features lead stories from the E & P print edition, and a summary of news items on information technology from Educom, a Washington, DC-based consortium of colleges and universities seeking to transform education through the use of information technology. If all of this sounds like too much info to be easily accessed, rest assured that Editor & Publisher Interactive is well-organized and logical, like good editors and publishers should be....but seldom are. For those not familiar with the print version of E & P, don't be intimidated by the name. This is not simply a professional journal; its articles are important reading for anyone interested in current political and media issues. A quick search of available articles offers up substantive pieces on the Freedom of Information Act, the slave trade in Sudan, and the how much the US government pays for secrecy. The site doesn't call itself "interactive" for nothing. In the E&P Interactive Forum readers are encouraged to respond to a topical article such as the one entitled, "Newspapers Must Save Their Own Lives." Enumerating the ways in which newspapers have lost touch with readers, Rolfe Neil, publisher of The Charlotte Observer , sets forth a nine-point plan. There's something oddly comforting in debating the fate of newsprint online, as if the death knell may not toll awhile yet. E & P Interactive, for all its attention to news gathering technology, still manages to convey images of hard-boiled, chain smoking reporters tapping away in shirt sleeves and loosened ties for a paper that represents a real city and not just a cyberplace. When you're surfing the Web, overwhelmed by the flood of news and information that seems to come magically, out of nowhere, it's easy to forget that there are individuals out there who still do the legwork to make sense of it all before it hits the page -- sorry, screen. E & P Interactive manages to provide an unparalleled resource for research, while presenting articles that remind of us the very real business of reporting and publishing, both online and off.
Overall Rating: 18
without, unfortunately providing links to comprehensive news sites, so that women can catch up on the larger picture while they're at it. And, although the "Go Vote 1996" tag links to Lifetime's Election page, a substantive discussion of how election issues effect women is missing. Moving on to category number two, Style gives an indication of where the site's creators are coming from. A debate over whether or not blondes have more fun is about as hackneyed as it gets, and the links to fashion houses comprise the rest of the offerings. Other sections present themselves more effectively. There are useful features in the Work section that profile professional women and rank 100 of the best companies for working mothers, based on pay rates, promotion and childcare practices. But the consumer information available seems overshadowed by a lurking corporate presence, as in the Leasing v. Financing comparison, brought to you by Ford. The Body area deals with health and fitness, offering some unbiased, information, unaffiliated with any products and brought to you by the National Women's Health Resource Center. Check out the Cash page for some decent investment advice, with tips on how to store away funds for the house, vacation, or grad school you've been dreaming about. In the Women's Wire Web area, there are some very sound articles about breaking into writing for TV, how to become a webmistress, multimedia producer, environmentalist, etc. And last of all, an obligatory shopping link. I can't decide if I'm put off by this inclusion. Consumerism is not a gender-based thing, but do men's sites link to shopping pages? Probably. Ultimately, everyone is looking for something special in gender or ethnic-specific sites, and no, you can't please everyone. I was just a little disappointed to see many the standard "women's magazine" model trotted out as if there were no alternative. The Who We Are section lacks an editorial statement, a conspicuous omission in a such a subject-specific publication.
Overall Rating: 18
Paris Anglophone
URL: http://paris-anglo.com/index.html
Category: Travel
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Are you Parisian and homesick? Or an American Francophile? Either way, you're sure to enjoy yourself on the Paris-Anglophone. Here you'll find complete and nicely arrayed listings for everything you'd want to do, see, or know about the "City of Lights." Whether your interest is business, pleasure, or a combination of the two, you'll want to check out cafe listings, classifieds, and Paris-Zoom, an interactive photographic journey through the city. Search the Paris-Anglophone directory with 4200 listings for English-speaking Paris, convert e-mail into French, or see an art exhibit. Come to think of it, I had more fun, met friendlier people, and spent much less cash on the Anglophone than on my last visit to Paris....
Overall Rating: 18
A Forum for Women's Health
URL: http://www.healthwire.com/women/
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
A Forum for Women's Health is a collection of facts, information, advice, and suggestions to help women deal with all manner of health concerns. All content on the Forum's pages has been designed, written, and developed by a woman physician along with other women's health professionals. Savvy organization makes it easy to get sound answers on health care issues for women of all ages which address the psychological as well as the physical. Dip into original articles and have your individual health questions answered by a woman physician, check out a comprehensive link collection, or browse by subject. This well-designed and informative site is a truly great women's resource.
Overall Rating: 18
Martindale's Health Science Guide
URL: http://www-sci.lib.uci.edu/HSG/HSGuide.html
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Martindale's Health Science Guide is a "Multimedia Specialized Information Resource" currently containing over 27,500 teaching files, over 34,500 Medical Cases, and 393 Courses/Textbooks. And if that doesn't scare you, wait till you dig into it all. Get all the info imaginable about Earth: time zones, weather, position of the planets, moon's view; and get World Wide Daily Reports on a multitude of subjects. All that before you even enter the Virtual Medical Center or the Allied Health Center. Link to every medical- related server and site known to humankind. Look for a veterinary dictionary, scan the route of the Crimean Railroad, or connect to every online resource for Kenya. Didn't believe any site could do all this till I saw it with my own eyes.
Overall Rating: 18
ThinkQuest
URL: http://www.advanced.org/thinkquest/
Category: Kids
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
ThinkQuest is an annual contest that challenges students, ages 12 to 18, to use the Internet as a collaborative, interactive teaching and learning tool by joining in teams of two or three and competing to build Web tools or materials that will help educate other. The winning team (one in each of five subject areas) receives college scholarships and its coaches and schools receive cash prizes. Browse through a library of past entries to see what past ThinkQuest participants have come up with: the results are impressive. Advanced Network & Services, who sponsors ThinkQuest, provides workshops in various towns to give students the skills to design their own Web pages.
Overall Rating: 18
Mr. Showbiz
URL: http://www.mrshowbiz.com/
Category: Film
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Where else can you get the inside dish on the man who sucked Fergie's toes? Welcome to Mr. Showbiz, a site that covers the world of entertainment, from news of the trashy and tawdry, to insightful interviews with writers, filmmakers, and other such species. Check out Serb Heat, a three-day novel written online; plus music, book, film, and theater reviews. Get the latest-breaking entertainment stories, feature articles and the daily Watercooler poll. Visit the Plastic Surgery Lab where you can mix and match the facial features of Friends' stars to suit your fancy. Mr. Showbiz manages to cover show business without sinking into mindless star stroking, so go ahead: Indulge your prurient fixations without the guilt.
Overall Rating: 17
Warner Brothers JazzSpace
URL: http://www.wbjazz.com/
Category: Music
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Jazz Space, Warner Brothers' self-promoting site, is slick and dense, offering sound bites of more than 50 jazz recording artists. The Pollstar database allows you to track down any one of WB's signees to find out where they're appearing live. The Multimedia Catalog offers access to Warner's Jazz-related catalog and lets you hear clips, find videos, and get information about artists. Check out the screensaver and three interactive programs available for download. Lot's to listen to and it's just as glossy as you'd expect from a megamedia conglomerate.
Overall Rating: 17
Information SuperLibrary
URL: http://www.mcp.com/
Category: Reference
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Information SuperLibrary, brought to you by Macmillan Publishing and Viacom, is a combination of search services and Macmillan promotion. You can browse through 6,000 of Macmillan's book and software titles and locate the seller nearest you or search their subject catalog to reference titles -- titles from Macmillan, that is. If you're not interested in buying, use Supersearch to look for just about anything, on four different engines at once. Includes access to Web Yellow Pages, Yahoo, Alta Vista, Infoseek, et. al. This site underlines the unsavory combination of commerce and information access found at so many corporate sites. In this case, it's a useful search center with a misleading name. It might more appropriately be called "The Super Macmillan Library."
Overall Rating: 17
Unofficial Wendy's Home page
URL: http://www.vbc.net/~wendysnet/
Category: Bizarre
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Set up by a couple of wacky young men from New Jersey, the Wendy's Unofficial Home page is an expression of their love for Wendy's restaurants. Louis and Ish: Two men with a mission: "to visit every Wendy's we had knowledge of, starting with New Jersey, then moving on, limited only by our $5.05-$6.00 an hour jobs." Come to the site for Wendy's reviews, Wendy's floorplans, and links to like-minded individuals. There's an interactive map, thorough directions to Wendy's in their area, Wendy's FAQ's, and an extensive photo gallery. Tune in soon for information about their pilgrimage to the very first Wendy's in Columbus Ohio.
Overall Rating: 17
HealthSite
URL: http://www.atthealthsite.com/
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
HealthSite is a composite of six specific health pages, including, Prevention magazine, Men's Health, and Mayo Health O@sis. As a site then, it is only as good as its links, which happen to be pretty interesting. Prevention is the most fun, with all sorts of interactive health quizzes, stress testers, and nutrition tips along with tons of useful information. Men's Health is equally flashy, although obviously narrower in scope, and Mayo Health O@sis is a wealth of information with a useful library section and links to the clinic itself. Healthsite is a probably worth a bookmark, offering as it does, a central platform for all your health-related concerns.
Overall Rating: 17
Kosher Living
URL: http://www.kashrus.org/kosher.html
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Whether or not you're Jewish and Kosher, this is a useful site. Packed with information on permissible foods, preparation, and the history and nature of Kashrus, Kosher Living serves as an in-depth introduction to the principles behind Kosher laws, and is a helpful guide to those who practice them. The site is brought to you from the director of the Asian-American Kashrus, Singapore-born Rabbi Meyer, who is not surprised that the general public knows little about the history and culture of Asian Jews. So he's made it easy to learn by providing an interactive map of Asia with an informative essay attached to each country. Also check out Asian Kosher Recipes and links to other Kosher sites.
Overall Rating: 17
Enter Magazine
URL: http://www.entermag.com/
Category: Professional
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
This zine is a career guide and consumer resource aimed at college students and recent graduates. Well-designed and stylishly written, Enter Magazine Survival Guide delivers sound advice and interesting reading without that irksome self-consciousness so common to youth-focused media. Get the goods on how to buy a car without getting taken, the best ways to beat the job interview shakes, and how to get serious cash for old clothes. Not many graphics, but the quality of the text is such that they're not missed. The Survival Guide has lots of useful info if you're striking out on your own for the first time, or you'd just like to brush up on those so-called survival skills.
Overall Rating: 17
Big Book
URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-adv/bigbook/front.htm
Category: Reference
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Are you looking for a resource that can locate any business in North America? Well Big Book by Washingtonpost.com might be the answer. Type in the name of the business or its category and odds are good that Big Book can track it down, even if you don't know the city or state. There's an address book feature, maps available for 16 million U.S. businesses, with a zoom feature, and plans for a 3D version in the works. Big Book also provides a handy Shortlist which offers select web sites for each search category: travel, health, computers, etc. With so many references of this sort popping up, it's difficult to say which one is the end-all, but Big Book is definitely in the running.
Overall Rating: 17
Roam
URL: http://www.roam.org/
Category: Travel
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
An online travel zine, Roam is a great resource for intrepid wayfarers who like to travel on the rough, and hear tales from those doing the same. You can read daily travelogues from Roam writers who've gone forth to cover all manner of locales. Hear from a twosome who cruised the French Riviera sleeping in their car, another pair touring a Slovenian squat, or get the scoop from Pamplona on the Running of the Bulls. Roam can also help you locate a friend or item you might've lost on your journey and put you in touch with others who are going your way.
Overall Rating: 17
Shanghai-ed
URL: http://www.shanghai-ed.com
Category: Travel
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Shanghai...few place names resonant like that one. Conjures up murky docks, emigre palaces, and opium dens. That Shanghai disappeared with the Cultural Revolution, but with China's "Open Door" policy, this teeming city of 15 million (8 million in the city proper) is once again becoming a magnet for all sorts of international finance and appears to be booming. Shanghai-ed is extremely sophisticated and well designed, moving with ease between a history of the city and lists of restaurants, shops, and travel advice. May-May, cigarette-smoking, wartime partygirl that she is, will be your guide to the nightlife, providing lists of bars, karaoke joints, beer houses, and discos. A great site to visit...makes me wish someone would put me on a slow boat to China.
Overall Rating: 17
Travel Asia Net
URL: http://www.travelasianet.com
Category: Travel
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Asia Net covers an array of Asian Countries, primarily in the Southeast. Each country gets it's own home page, designed like a Monopoly board. Each board contains, along with info on communication, transportation, entertainment, etc., a "Go to jail" square which always renders this single sentence: "(Country Name), like the rest of Asia, has strict drug regulations." Unfortunately, only six out of the twenty-one countries on the Asian Heat list open. The Writer's Cafe offers an array of travel pieces; What's Cookin' provides regional gastro-news; and Travel Trends highlights new developments in international travel. Though extremely slick, the lack of content in some areas makes me think this one is still under construction. Well worth the visit all the same.
Overall Rating: 17
Testprep.com
URL: http://www.testprep.com/
Category: Education
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Too bad this resource wasn't around when I was suffering through SAT preparations. This is a truly useful site which provides a free SAT course. Diagnose your weak areas by taking a complete version of the SAT and then choose from 1000's of review lessons including answers and explanations. You can shop to order SAT guides at the Testprep Superstore or purchase the Stanford Studyguide software disk. But it's refreshing to see free information so readily offered in an area which has become an industry in itself.
Overall Rating: 16
The Hollywood Network
URL: http://www.hollywoodnetwork.com/
Category: Film
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Hey kid! Looking to break into the pitchas? Want an agent, a screenplay, some grant money for your film? The Hollywood Network covers any aspect of the film industry that you can imagine. Chat with acting hopefuls, consult with industry insiders, or take a screenwriting seminar. The Hollydex Directory can tell you where to find a Russian 16-mm camera or post production facilities in Belgium. An excellent resource for professional services and information.
Overall Rating: 16
Speakeasy Cafe
URL: http://speakeasy.org/speak/cafe.html
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
This Seattle-based site is an online rendition of the real Speakeasy Cafe, encouraging the same spirit as its three-dimensional namesake; namely, easy-going, coffee-soaked palaver. The real world version of the Speakeasy offers couches and computers to its patrons, creating a kind of community feeling that translates well to the site. The Speakeasy Network offers a variety of Internet services and online utilities to its members with a Northwestern flair. I especially like the Trading Post area with a direct link to countless federal sites, including the CIA home page. Check out the large collection of art work in the Art Gallery, or consult the Alerts and Calendar sections to see what's new in the Northwest.
Overall Rating: 16
Brazil Online
URL: http://brazilonline.com/music.html
Category: Music
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
This is a comprehensive site covering all angles of Brazilian music in depth, and some international sounds as well. There are literally hundreds of sound bites, discographies for various artists, and histories of different musical movements. "Images of Brazilian Music" is a vivid photographic exhibit by Mario Luiz featuring key Brazilian musicians, composers, and vocalists. You can get the lowdown on Samba, Afro-Brazilian rhythms, etc. A must for Brazilian music novices and aficionados alike.
Overall Rating: 16
Harmony Central
URL: http://harmony-central.mit.edu
Category: Music
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Harmony Central is an extremely effective clearinghouse of information for musicians. Get the scoop on bass lessons, MIDI explanations, new music-related software, or browse the classifieds. The information in this site is truly exhaustive, including a Band Page that will link you to sites for everything from getting gigs and copyrighting songs to silk-screening T-shirts and building your own studio. Scott Lehman, the erstwhile musician who runs the show here, was inspired by the sheer magnitude of music-related information on the Internet to start Central Harmony. He's accomplished no mean feat by pulling it all together. A little sticky on the download, but worth the patience.
Overall Rating: 16
Purdue On-Line Writing Lab
URL: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
Category: Reference
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
The Purdue University Online Writing Lab is a great resource that you don't have to be a Purdue student -- or a student anywhere -- to enjoy. Tutorials on sentence construction, punctuation, and spelling are accompanied by exercises to test your skill. The Resume Guidance section is an extremely thorough workshop on resume and cover letter construction and provides links to a wealth of job search sites. Learn the ropes of abstract report writing and business correspondence in The Business Writing seminar. There is also an area for those studying English as a Second Language. A fine site for learning something new or brushing up old skills.
Overall Rating: 16
SOAR--Searchable On-line Archive of Recipes
URL: http://soar.Berkeley.EDU/recipes/
Category: Reference
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Have you been looking for that favorite Chow Mien-on-a-Bun recipe? Things to do with fried peanut butter, Welsh Mussel Pate, Tibetan Mo-Mo's, or Cajun Tofu? This is an incredibly useful site that got me very hungry. You can choose by country, course, or run a search for an elusive recipe for some obscure delicacy. There's a section for weird recipes like baked camel and lard omelet, as well as countless mouth-waterers like Chicken Acapulco With Creamy Shrimp Sauce, Asparagus Crab Soup, or Italian Potato Pie. Problem is, you may get so involved in the search that you decide to go hungry.
Overall Rating: 16
The Quotations Page
URL: http://www.starlingtech.com/quotes/
Category: Reference
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
I guess I warmed to this site as soon as I found the Jack Handey (SNL's *Deep Thoughts* guy) document in the Random Quotes section: "We used to laugh at Grandpa when he'd head off and go fishing. But we wouldn't be laughing that evening when he'd come back with some whore he picked up in town." There are quotes of the famous, the infamous, and the downright unknown. You -- yes you! -- can even enter your own quote and wow others with your profundity or lameness, as the case may be. Links to lots of quotation collections. Just remember, "To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer." -- Farmers' Almanac, 1978.
Overall Rating: 16
Eric's Treasure Trove of Scientific Biography
URL: http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~eww/bios/
Category: Reference
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Did you know that "Zeno of Elea (ca. 490-ca. 425 BC) was the chief of the Eleatic school of philosophy." Would you like the lowdown on Zeno? Kelvin? Kant? Eric's Treasure Trove of Scientific Biography can give you the scoop on every science-related soul who ever lit a Bunsen burner, contemplated its phenomenology, or speculated on the nature of things even before Bunsen was a speck in the cosmos. Bios can be accessed by alphabetical order, if you know the name of the thinker, or by subject. Not much to look at, but the information, all compiled single-handedly by Eric over the last nine years, is impressive.
Overall Rating: 16
Futbol, Futbol, y Mas Futbol
URL: http://www.calweb.com/~migutz/
Category: Sports
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Futbol, Futbol, y Mas Futbol is a site for enthusiasts that highlights Central California Soccer leagues and provides links (and more links) to the world of soccer at large. There's a very nice Pele page, as well as links to unexpected sites like the Boston Grafitti Documentary and the Paris Museum page. Couldn't open the Robotic Cyberbabes page, unfortunately. This site is brought to you my Miquel Guittierez, who, judging from the Guest Book Entries has filled a niche need with this page.
Overall Rating: 16
The Half-Decent Web Site
URL: http://www.wsc.co.uk/wsc/
Category: Sports
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
A humorous look at soccer inspired by *When Saturday Comes*, the UK's biggest independent football magazine. Visit Pele's Poetry page (did he really write this stuff?), find out about the best football pubs internationally, and drop in on Xavier's Euro 96 Culture page where he manages, in a few lines of free-association, to deftly link nostalgia fetishism in the UK to collective yearnings for an older class system. But, we're here to talk about football, right? Lot's of links to football sites in addition to the eclectic range of Real Life Links to the likes of Elvis, Webmuseum, and Screenwriters On-Line. You don't have to be a died-in-the-wool soccer fan to hang out here. Definitely better than half decent.
Overall Rating: 16
Central Park
URL: http://www.centralpark.org/
Category: Travel
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
The Central Park site is as close as you can get to this historic center without actually being there. Take a guided tour, check up on the myriad groups operating within the park, and learn its history: You might be curious to know that its creation caused considerable controversy. Expansion in 1863 required displacing roughly 1,600 residents and saw the downfall of Seneca Village, which had been one of the city's most stable African-American settlements. This is a useful way to tour the park if you're too far away or far too nervous to do the real thing. E.S. C-2, A-3, T-2.
Overall Rating: 16
500X Gallery
URL: http://www.whytel.com/users/rawspace/500.html
Category: Art
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
The 500X Gallery, operating since 1978 in the great state of Texas, encourages young and emerging artists to take creative risks in an uninhibited forum, free from the restrictions of mainstream galleries. The nicely designed site allows you to view the works of the 500X Gallery staff and members and provides links to related galleries. Especially good is the Pablum link which includes, in addition to record reviews and Japanese culture, a DIY HTML page called Webhead.
Overall Rating: 16
Last Ditch
URL: http://www.bway.net/~ditch/
Category: Bizarre
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
I got so caught up in page after page telling me to turn back, I was hooked. There's not much to the Last Ditch site, but then they're the first ones to say so. What you do get is some funny writers who make fun of their site so effectively, it comes off as a success. Good self-deprecating stream-of-consciousness stuff, and the Sewage Report is a must-read.
Overall Rating: 16
KidsDoctor
URL: http://www.kidsdoctor.com/
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
This is a great site: well-presented, easy to use, and really packed with information. The Doctor will answer any questions you have about childhood ailments, from Poison Oak to Slap-Face Fever (I'm not making this up). All the explanations and advice are written in a down-home, Dr. Spock sort of style, well-suited to the impish man behind the project, Dr. Lewis L. Coffin, III. Comfortable place to consult with a friendly voice.
Overall Rating: 16
KidsHealth.org
URL: http://KidsHealth.org/
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
This extensive and informative site is funded by the Nemours Foundation and the I. A. duPont Institute Children's Hospital and provides sections for parents, children, and professionals. The most frequently asked questions are posted along with in-depth, easy to understand explanations. An extremely useful Question Index allows kids to get answers to questions like, "What are hiccups?" and "What is AIDS?" with a simple click. And parents can read diagnoses of everything from hyperactivity to Tourette Syndrome. Easy to use, KidsHealth.org has enough graphics, color, and digestible text to be interesting and helpful for children, and enough real information to be a serious resource for parents and professionals.
Overall Rating: 16
Peace Corps Crossroads
URL: http://www.concentric.net/~jmuehl/links.shtml
Category: Professional
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
This site is dedicated to helping prospective Peace Corps volunteers find each other and allows returned or current volunteers to hook up with their compatriots and swap "reentry" stories. A large part of the site consists of a list, in alphabetical order by country, which provides basic info about the available sites and individuals and includes hotlinked e-mail addresses on soon-to-be departing volunteers, as well as returned (or current) volunteers willing to act as "mentors." There are more Peace Corps-related sites here than you can shake a walking stick at. Also, a great place for links to a multitude of international pages.
Overall Rating: 16
Desktop Publisher Journal
URL: http://www.dtpjournal.com/
Category: Professional
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Everything you need to know about the latest developments in desktop publishing technology is here, including tips on trends, the lowdown on copyright issues, multimedia project management, and more. The Technique section helps desktop publishers beef-up their bag o' tricks, discussing how-to's and which software to use for a given effect. Vendor Lists offer the specs on a multitude of products, and you'll find reviews of the newest in hardware and multimedia in the Technology section. Desktop publishing-related articles are found in the DTP Forum. Desktop publishing wizards and neophytes alike are sure to find something useful here.
Overall Rating: 16
U.S. Census Bureau Subscription Service
URL: http://www.census.gov/prod/www/
Category: Reference
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Do the words U.S. Census Bureau make you want to yawn convulsively? Can't shake the image of some federally employed drone nosing around the neighborhood, asking you how many people live in your house? Well, you may have some surprises in store at the Bureau's CenStats Electronic Subscription Service site, of which a free preview is being offered for a limited time. Their A-Z index can get you information on everything from crops and developing world trends to genealogy, geographical mobility, and women-owned businesses. No information about joining up with the service, but this site is loaded with useful information and makes those piles of census statistics a lot more accessible and interesting.
Overall Rating: 16
Journal Graphics
URL: http://www.charm.net/~kelsy/
Category: Reference
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Journal Graphics Online provides transcripts of just about every news program you can think of from CNN, PBS, ABC, or NPR, offers video tape of CNN broadcasts since August 13, 1995, and is currently building up a PBS video archive. They also offer a paid clipping service called Topic Alert, which can keep you up to date on news from all the major networks, as well as those already listed. The site lets you search alphabetically or by topic, and the inventory is truly impressive. Unfortunately, no prices are given for any of the transcripts, nor for the other services offered.
Overall Rating: 16
Web Surfer Travel Journal
URL: http://edge.edge.net/~dphillip/
Category: Travel
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
This densely packed and well-linked zine combines just about every travel resource you can think of with interviews and some darn good writing. Dan Phillip, editor/publisher, is a twenty-year exotic travel veteran with lots of good stories of his own. He's collected a slew of travelogues and tales from other wanderers, useful travel guides (check out Lonely Planet), maps, exploration outfits, and travel magazines. The Web Surfer Travel Journal is a dangerous place for those of us with itchy feet; if you haven't been bitten by the bug before you visit, you're sure catch it while you're here.
Overall Rating: 16
Vagabond Monthly
URL: http://www2.globaldialog.com/~tpatmaho/
Category: Travel
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
If you're in the market for some great travel stories, tales of the tortured and amused, head for Vagabond Monthly. There you'll be entertained by confessions of urban campers, spiritual quests to Bakersfield, monkey's caught in trees in Barbados, and an ode to Greyhound. Written with good humor throughout, Vagabond Monthly revels in the tragicomedy of travel. Even the letters page is a good read. Links to a site called Flifo, a great resource for low airfares. If you've got a travel story to tell, this is the place; otherwise, sit back and enjoy these strange but true yarns from the road.
Overall Rating: 16
HMO Page
URL: http://www.hmopage.org
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
This is a truly rich and frightening resource. Want to learn everything there is to know about the horrors of HMOs? If you're a member of one, listen up. Read the "Managed Care Atrocity of the Month" or visit the "Managed Care Hall of Shame"; hear tales of health horror from victims and remaining family members; find out how HMOs work and about workable alternatives; and get the lowdown on the world of for-profit medical care and what it means to you. Handy links to Doctors Who Care, legislative information, a page of HMO humor, glossary of terms, of acronyms, and HMO FAQs. A good read that's good for you.
Overall Rating: 16
All About Health
URL: http://www.allabouthealth.com
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
A well put together health magazine, All About Health offers the latest news in medicine, health care, and related fields, written in layperson terms. Features all sorts of interesting health tidbits. Did you know the Internet can be as addicting as alcohol, drugs and gambling? Or that a chemical used in dry cleaning is carcinogenic? Five pairs of dry-cleaned pants in a car for 15 minutes results in three times the air concentration considered safe. Search by topic or choose from Hot News, regular columns, articles, product information, and thousands of links to health-related sites. A great source for off-the-beaten-path health news.
Overall Rating: 16
Oscar-Mayer Cyber Cinema
URL: http://www.oscar-mayer.com
Category: Corporate
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Stop by to visit The World Wide Weener... "the hottest link in the Oscar Mayer web site," or get the latest on the Oscar Mayer Talent Search where kids will be auditioned singing either the Wiener Jingle or the Bologna Song in ninety U.S. cities. As of this writing, it's Soup and Sandwich month, so features run the gamut, from a soup and sandwich personality test to a map of soup and sandwich place names. Don't forget the interactive history of the Wienermobile. Rife with plays on words like "relish" and "ketchup", this cheesy (ahem) site is fun to look at and will probably be a hit with kids of all ages who get a kick out of cold cuts and food personification.
Overall Rating: 16
World of Speedo
URL: http://www.world-of-speedo.com
Category: Corporate
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Get the latest on Aquablade, the fastest suit on the market and hear Speedo sing the praises of its space age S2000, a fabric worn by 8 out of 10 swimming World Record holders at Barcelona. The Atlanta Olympics still loom large on this site, with a day by day rundown courtesy of Aussie swimmer Alex Bennett, who couldn't compete due to a car crash shortly before the Games. Pages with hints and tips on triathlon and beach volleyball competitions are also available. A very slick design, the site provides a list of retail locations worldwide and links to scores of swimming-related sites.
Overall Rating: 16
Tide ClothesLine
URL: http://www.clothesline.com
Category: Corporate
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Tide ClothesLine features a handy Stain Detective which will, by category, help figure out the nature of and removal procedure for any given spot. "Body soils/unknown stains" remains a mystery, though, as it refused to load. I did, however, determine the best way to remove Playdoh/Silly Putty, from acrylic. You can get laundry tips for beginners ("turn on the machine to fill it with water") and parents of young children, an apparel labeling guide, and a list of FAQ's. And if you want to impress your friends at the laundromat, dip into Laundry Trivia to get the lowdown on laundry demographics.
Overall Rating: 16
Feminist.com
URL: http://feminist.com
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Feminist.com was founded on the principle that women and girls are steered away from math, science, and technology, traditionally have trouble breaking into the "old boys network", and may not feel comfortable enough to participate in online networking...at least in the numbers that men do. According to Fem.com, the numbers of women online has grown to as much as 30%, but it's still a disappointing turnout. This site works to encourage women to connect with an array of resources and links that support women's issues and human rights concerns in general. The Activism section includes a calendar of urgent actions and newsletters from a variety of organizations. Also check out the impressive collection of health and employment resources and the Articles and Speeches section.
Overall Rating: 16
YouthLink
URL: http://www.youthlink.org/
Category: Kids
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Billing itself as the voice of America's youth, Youthlink is the site for first national youth conventions. Sorry, there, grups, you can't cast your vote here if you're over 24. In the U Gotta Know section, get statistics on how the U.S. ranks internationally in terms of young people's quality of life. The First National Youth Conventions were non-partisan events held in San Diego on August 12 and 13 and Chicago on August 26 and 27 concurrent with the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. Youth Delegates at the San Diego and Chicago Youth Conventions presented responses from the Web site in the form of a National Youth Platform to the residential candidates and national media.
Overall Rating: 16
Safe Return
URL: http://www.mdtv.com/safe.html
Category: Travel
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Latest breaking news on travel risks, including revolutions, natural disasters and terrorist dangers. Unfortunately, most of this info can only be accessed by Safe Return members. One day of online information in members-only areas will cost you $9.95. For free, you can get Red and Yellow safety alerts for most countries. For a fee, you get access to in-depth Country Reports, which detail every imaginable aspect of health and safety in the country of your choice. With so much free travel info on the Web, however, Safe Return's daily fees seem a bit steep.
Overall Rating: 16
Pitcairn Island Home Page
URL: http://www.wavefront.com:80/~pjlareau/pitc1.html
Category: Travel
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
What do the Mutiny on the Bounty and Pitcairn Island have in common? Well Pitcairn was settled by the Fletcher Christian party, once they'd taken their leave of Captain Bligh: "The British mutineers and their Tahitian wives/allies occupied Pitcairn Island as their new home because it lay some 200 miles from its charted position, was uninhabited, and could support a small settlement." There are 50 people on Pitcairn today, all ancestors of six Bounty mutineers, but for such a small population, this site is packed with info on daily life, photos, and articles about the Island. Learn Pitcairn Patois (Tahitian and English), read "Bloodless Genocide," a very interesting history of Pitcairn and nearby islands, and browse the Pitcairn Virtual Shopping Mall. Very interesting and informative.
Overall Rating: 16
On Safari
URL: http://www2.onsafari.com
Category: Travel
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Ever hear of a Safari sanctioned by Green Peace and the Jane Goodall Institute? On Safari puts a new twist on the old Hemingway-style lion hunts and bongo shoots. Here, you can find out about photographic and cultural safaris, bird watching, mountain climbing, canoeing, ballooning, or game watching safaris. And, by the sounds of it, if you want to experience Africa's unique wilderness, you'd better hurry: "During the past twenty-five years man has destroyed much of the wildlife which has roamed the African plains for over 2 million years." These trips don't come cheap, mind you, so if you'd like to follow the Wildebeest migration or climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, start saving now.
Overall Rating: 16
Armadillos Guide to the Internet
URL: http://riceinfo.rice.edu:80/armadillo/
Category: Education
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
This server will give you every imaginable angle on K-12 education in the state of Texas. Armadillos provides links to a variety of educational resources for teachers and students, including Texas Studies, information about collaborative efforts between students and teachers, and resources on a variety of K-12 subjects (useful for teachers everywhere), as well as access to TENET which has job listings for educators interested in working in the Lone Star state.
Overall Rating: 15
Minnesota Preparatory Schools
URL: http://www.mps.org/
Category: Education
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
You ever stop to wonder how many college prep schools could be found in Winona Minnesota? Probably not, eh? Well, this server connects Winona's three preparatory institutions and their offerings, giving profiles of each school, the student life there, course selection, etc. There's even a resident dorm which provides housing for out-of-town students. If you're already prepared, collegiately speaking, link up to St. Mary's home page, a private Catholic University in, you guessed it, Winona, Minnesota.
Overall Rating: 15
Lumo-Finnish Film Home page
URL: http://www.kaapeli.fi/~lumo/English/
Category: Film
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
"On June 28th 1896, on their way from from St. Petersburg to Paris, the projectionists for the Lumire brothers set up their equipment at what was at the time the Hotel Seurahuone on the market square in the heart of Helsinki, and played moving pictures to a packed house." This event marked the first public screening of any film in Finland and is the commemorative date of the Finnish film centenary. "One hundred years of film" is the theme of Lumo, the home page set up by the Finnish Film Foundation. It provides archive information, key dates in Finnish Film History, profiles of Finnish filmmakers, festival information and links to the Oulu film center which imports and rents 16 and 35mm films.
Overall Rating: 15
Ed Wood Home page
URL: http://garnet.acns.fsu.edu/~lflynn/edwood.html
Category: Film
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
At last! An online homage to the quirky pulp film maestro, Ed Wood, best known for classics like *Plan 9 From Outer Space* and for giving new life to the sagging career of Bela Lugosi. The page includes a complete filmography of Ed's illustrious career, including insightful and enthusiastic commentary by the site's creator Leisa R. Flynn. There's a professional horoscope on Ed, reproductions of film posters, and a photo of Ed at Lugosi's funeral. Ordering information for his films and autobiography are also available. Enlightening and well-presented.
Overall Rating: 15
Queensryche
URL: http://www.cris.com/~marcus44/rych.shtml
Category: Music
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
This fansite is devoted to The Ryche: the myth, the recordings, and what the guy who runs the page thinks of it all. It's dark. It's metallic. And the color scheme and gothic lettering remind me of what someone would spend hours drawing on a pee-chee folder. You say you've been wanting a peek at The Ryche comic book? Ryche pictures to download so you can look at them any time you want? Hankering to enter the CD- ROM world of the Ryche? You wanna read Ryche's Internet magazine? Who'd have figured there were more Ryche-related sites than you could shake a spiked amulet at?
Overall Rating: 15
Hollow Ear
URL: http://www.hear.com/hollow/
Category: Music
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Defined here as "(1) music and art that defies easy categorizations or quick quips (2) a sideways glance at commercial culture," Hollow Ear fits the bill on both counts, exploring a variety of off-the-beaten-path sounds and ideas. The Sound File delivers clips of music from all over the world, offering up everything from Vietnamese folk to Romanian Gypsy bands. Features include interviews, commentary, poetry, and a regular column from Moscow. Check up on the doings of rebel radio in "Radio Resistor," a section which archives a now defunct publication by the same name and links to various independent radio sites. Eclectic coverage, nice layout, and an interesting angle make this 'zine a good read.
Overall Rating: 15
Firefly
URL: http://www.ffly.com
Category: Music
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Firefly is a software service that matches its members to entertainment recommendations and to each other, according to their interests and tastes. The more information with which you provide your "agent," the more accurate the recommendations sent your way, highlighting music, movies, and members to meet. Only extended usage will determine how valid Firefly's picks are, but there's a lot of info available for immediate access. Enter the name of a band, musician, film, etc. and you'll get a page of information and be asked to rate the subject for Firefly, helping it to better define your tastes. Ultimately, this site will be as interesting as its users. Good design and lots to do.
Overall Rating: 15
Sonic Blue Heaven
URL: http://www.netgate.net/~dwpd/nirvana/
Category: Music
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
OK. If you like Nirvana, you will really dig this page. There is an unbelievable amount of mind-numbing trivia here, like why Kurt spelled his name that way or the date he smashed his first guitar. The detail of the research is impressive in itself. But then I wonder....what is a person who compiles thousands of obscure facts about another person like? Or am I just a jaded anti-fan? Features include Nirvana movies, tons of sound bites, and links to other Nirvana pages and Hole sites. Don't know what more a Nirvana fan could ask for.
Overall Rating: 15
Phase of the Moon
URL: http://www.speakeasy.org/~chris/pom/
Category: Reference
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
You think just looking at the night sky is good enough? No way. Beam-in here to check out the moon's current phase in all its complexity. Posted according to Seattle time, the lunation number, lumination percentage, and age of the moon (to the second) are given. And that's it, folks.
Overall Rating: 15
Gina-Global Internet News Agency
URL: http://www.gina.com/
Category: Reference
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Gina provides comprehensive coverage of Internet developments, highlighting new products and services. Businesses can use Gina services to connect with countless other Internet-related buyers and sellers. The Internet Wire provides daily updates of new product press releases, and Technology News Tips offers lists for PR professionals looking for places to post promotional material. The Expert Net lists experts and speakers available for conferences, trade shows, and seminars. Useful place for Internet businesses to swap information.
Overall Rating: 15
Special Olympics International
URL: http://www.specialolympics.org
Category: Sports
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
This is a straight ahead page that informs visitors about the Special Olympics--its history, philosophy, and how to volunteer. Founded "on the belief that people with mental retardation can, with proper instruction and encouragement, learn, enjoy and benefit from participation in individual and team sports," the Special Olympics has been doing non-profit work since 1968, helping its athletes, families, and communities lead richer lives. This site also contains valuable information on the nature, preventable causes, and occurrences of mental retardation. Each year, approximately 7,250 cases of retardation are prevented due to prenatal screening and treatment. The Special Olympics International page is a good example of how the net can give a boost to non-profits.
Overall Rating: 15
World of Golf
URL: http://worldofgolf.com/
Category: Sports
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Yes, the name is daunting...The World of Golf. What does the uninitiated know about birdies and pars? Well, you won't get much help from this site. The World of Golf turns out to be a shopping site. Are you looking for a $499 titanium with graphite shaft number? Woods, Irons, Wedges, and putters. It's all here. You can get pricing info and specs at the click of a button. No links, simply "a world of clubs...for you."
Overall Rating: 15
The CyberBoxing Zone
URL: http://members.aol.com/delisa1066/private/boxing.htm
Category: Sports
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
How else would one ever discover that Smokin' Joe Frazier writes like Mickey Spillane? "Bonavena hurt me with that right hand, hurt me like I hadn't been hurt since Georgie Boy had sledgehammered me that first day in the PAL gym. I'd walked into Bonavena's right like an innocent who'd strayed into the war zone." It could only happen in the Cyber Boxing Zone. And in addition to reviews of books by boxers (you said it couldn't be done) and about boxing, you get the update on related movies, computer games, and comics. This is the place for current boxing news, upcoming schedules, and information on current and past world champions. Also links to an AOL newsletter.
Overall Rating: 15
Ghost Town of the Month
URL: http://www.public.asu.edu/~wmogan/ghost.html
Category: Travel
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
If you happen to find yourself in the Arizona desert with time on your hands, you'll be glad you consulted Mike's Ghost Town of the Month page. This site highlights 19 crumbling relics of the Gold Rush, providing photos, exact coordinates, and detailed directions. If you are out of the Arizona area, this page provides a brief but telling description of Arizona boomtown history, with enough photographs to make you feel like you've almost been there. Afterwards, you can look through Mike's personal photo album and watch as he and his intrepid buddies rappel down rock faces, fondle firearms, and rescue boy scouts.
Overall Rating: 15
Havana Street
URL: http://www.eden.com/~havana/index.html
Category: Art
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Havana Clipart is a company which specializes in 40's era graphics. There are some freebies available on this site but if you want the goods, get ready to spend between $59 to $79 bucks for a CD-ROM. As a site, it doesn't offer much except for page after page of faces, people, and vehicles done with a wartime twist, which are fun to look at. Links to a zine called Retro and The Clipart Connection site.
Overall Rating: 15
The Bacon Oracle
URL: http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~bct7m/bacon.html
Category: Bizarre
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Any idea what the Bacon number of Max Von Sydow is? Well, Max appeared in the film Awakenings with Robert De Niro and De Niro was in Sleepers with Kevin Bacon, giving Max a Bacon number of two. See how it works? All of this information is brought to you courtesy The Oracle of Bacon at Virginia and two guys who set out to prove that no one could have a Bacon number bigger than four, since he always acts in movies with big casts of famous actors. You can also play a version of the game with Schwartzenegger as the center of the universe.
Overall Rating: 15
In Our Path
URL: http://www.tmn.com/iop/
Category: Art
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
This combination of photos, essays, and interactive maps follows the construction and aftermath of the Century Freeway Corridor in Los Angeles. Beginning the project in 1982, photographer Jeff Gates soon found the ramifications of his curiosity broadening as the project took shape. The end product of his work was several exhibits/community symposiums which are combined on the site. Seeking simply to capture the sense of "abandoned suburbia" that the scenery exuded, Gates became caught up in the stories of the people being displaced by the freeway as well as those involved in building it.
Overall Rating: 15
Phone Losers of America
URL: http://www.peak.org/~bueno/
Category: Bizarre
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Apparently inspired by a guy who dabbles in illicit phone codes and credit card fraud, Phone Losers of America takes as its premise the fact that symbols of communication authority should be made fun of: Ma Bell, AOL, and Bill Gates. There's a Prank Phone Call page with sound bites of choice harassment, reviews of recordings of more prank calls, extensive links to phone and bad attitude-related sites. Also, an anti-award page. Self mocking we-are-proud-to-be-phone-losers humor throughout. To hear the site's ringleader, Redbox Chilipepper tell it, "everyone's talking about PLA. If only they were saying something nice."
Overall Rating: 15
Radiation Experiments Final Report
URL: http://www.ohre.doe.gov/cur/achre/report.html
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
This site is one product of the final report from the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments. The Committee was formed by President Clinton in 1993, mandated "to review experiments conducted between 1944 and 1974, and was asked to determine the ethical and scientific standards by which to evaluate the pre-1974 experiments and the extent to which these experiments were consistent with such standards." Tall order. The report offers historical perspectives on human subject research, detailed explanation of the tests in question in the form of case studies, and an overview of contemporary and future projects.
Overall Rating: 15
Naked Magazine
URL: http://www.crl.com/~nakedmag/nakedmag.html
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Naked is a magazine for men who like to get naked. "Nudists, exhibitionists, and voyeurs use Naked as a forum of expression of their lifestyle." So, what we're talking about here is a site that tells gay and bi men where to take it off and how to locate others who are equally clothing-oppressed. You can find out about a Caribbean cruise (limited to 110 naked guys), check out personal ads, view nude models, and learn about nude organizations and getaway spots. The Naked Video sample was a total tease, however, and despite heavy perseverance, never loaded.
Overall Rating: 15
BeautyLink
URL: http://www.beautylink.com/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Kind of an online Glamour meets Seventeen magazine, The Beautylink tries to camp it up enough to make its departments enjoyable, but comes off kind of hokey all the same. But what should one expect from a site that promises to link you up with all the beauty the Web has offer? Cyberteena provides helpful hints for the under 21 crowd, Angora Teasdale can give you a makeover in the Looks section, and Blade Shearson ("I make you look gorgeous!") offers useful info in the Cyberspa. If the whole project makes you ask, "Is Fashion Silly?" there's a link to a site by that name that's pretty interesting.
Overall Rating: 15
Modified Online
URL: http://www.compulink.co.uk/~modified/
Category: Music
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Billing itself as an interactive music channel, Modified Online (from a UK media group by the same name) brings live four-track audio mixing to the Internet, offering a menu of various mixes that you can listen to while uploading and modifying your own sounds. If you have Netscape and Shockwave, you're invited to enter The Freezer, ("the world's first interactive Web single") but even appropriately equipped, you might still be out of luck. I consistently got the message, "Sorry groove cruisers, new Freezer transmissions are temporarily on hold while us hard drinkers are drinking hard in Ibiza." There are, however, more hotlinks than I've ever seen in one place and a demo of Modified's interactive FreQUency CD-ROM.
Overall Rating: 15
Steely Dan Internet Resource
URL: http://pages.prodigy.com/steelydan/
Category: Music
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
More than just a fan page, this site is worth visiting even if you're not big on the band's sound. Though all aspects of Steely Dan's world are represented in the manner of discography, photos, history, sound clips, tour schedules (first European shows in 22 years), etc., other areas of the site offer good reading to random passerby. In the Cafe L'escargot, you're given several chat options, a reading room with music-related essays, and links to The Electronic Frontier Foundation (well worth a visit!) and Pathfinder. A nicely designed and comfortable place to spend some time.
Overall Rating: 15
Homer, Alaska
URL: http://akms.com/htguide/
Category: Travel
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Homer, Alaska, the halibut capital of the world, was named after a '49'er who helped settle the town. Homer's web site is a recreation and tourism guide for this Kachemak Bay town, "where the road ends, and the sea begins." There's more to do in Homer than you might suspect: The Homer Jackpot Halibut Derby, clamming, kayaking, hiking, sailing, and all of this in an area that combines Eskimo, Dena'ina Indian, and Russian history. Don't worry if you can't make it all the way to Alaska; this web site is a worthwhile read on its own.
Overall Rating: 15
WebFlyer
URL: http://www.insideflyer.com/
Category: Travel
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
WebFlyer is geared to frequent flyers: how to get more miles and how to use them. This zine is the online synthesis of Frequent Flyer Services (FFS), a company that conceives, develops, and markets products and services for frequent travelers. Randy Peterson, a "frequent flyer guru," shares a host of mile-earning programs with you and includes reviews to make the choice easier. InfoFlyer lets you sign up with whatever service you choose while online. The site is repetitive graphically, and not too exciting textually, but if you're flummoxed by the world of amassed mileage, it's is worth a visit.
Overall Rating: 15
MCW International Travelers Clinic
URL: http://www.intmed.mcw.edu/travel.html
Category: Travel
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
The MCW International Travelers Clinic is a bankload of information, providing links to all manner of international health organizations and bulletins: U.S. State Dept. travel warnings, W.H.O. info, and even the C.I.A World Factbook. When you're dealing with the down and dirty of your life in a foreign locale, you may just need answers to questions like: Where can I turn if I get beriberi? Links like resources to The Moon Travel Handbook couold help you stay healthy in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and Travel Health Online provides country profiles and locates travel medicine providers. A great resource for travelers and health curious stay-at-homes alike.
Overall Rating: 15
Go Europe.com
URL: http://www.goeurope.com
Category: Travel
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
If you're looking for help planning a trip to The Continent, welcome to Go Europe.com, brought to you by the European Travel Commission. With a comprehensive and searchable Events Calendar you can plan your trip around seasonal happenings, or hear from folks who've been there and back; ask questions and swap photos in the Travelers Forum; get the specs on the 26 member countries of the European Travel Commission in Gateway to Europe. Though not aimed at the budget traveler and lacking accommodation listings, Go Europe.com is useful in providing background information and a general orientation to most European destinations (Russian travelers look elsewhere).
Overall Rating: 15
The Fen/Phen paradigm
URL: http://www.fenphen.com/
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
This site is dedicated to the study and promotion of a new type of medical treatment which has proven successful in curing addictive and compulsive conditions, alcoholism, and drug addiction through a joint administration of fenfluramine and phentermine, two drugs approved by the FDA in the `60s. Administered together, these drugs work to balance the body's production of dopamine and serotonin. Dr. Pietr Hitzig is the man behind the Fen/Phen clinical studies. He's planning to host a series of interactive case studies on the site, where individual patients will be treated in real time. Nice presentation of some interesting info.
Overall Rating: 15
The National Center For Stuttering
URL: http://www.stuttering.com/amessag.htm
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
The National Center for Stuttering, established in 1976, is dedicated to the study and treatment of a much misunderstood condition. They are involved in research, treatment, and education, offering a 24-hour stutterers' hotline. The NCS Treatment Program moves beyond conventional speech therapy by shifting the focus away from the stuttering itself to what they perceive to be the trigger for the stuttering: various types of tension--environmental, psychological, etc. They contend that stuttering is "learned extricatory struggle behavior, learned in childhood to release an individual from an inborn, often inherited, tendency to lock the cords when under conditions of stress." Repetitive design but a useful information resource.
Overall Rating: 15
Heart Home Page
URL: http://www.hearthome.com/
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
The Heart Homepage bills itself as the "primary source of information on the prevention and treatment of heart disease." Sponsored by Galichia Medical Group, you can get the answers to twenty of the most frequently asked questions or fill out a personalized form to get answers to individual questions-- straight forward, but rather one-dimensional. The only link is a promotional page for Galichia. At least some links to health-related sites to hold up the prevention end of the quotient would seem logical. A weak pulse at best.
Overall Rating: 15
Lupus Foundation of America
URL: http://internet-plaza.net/lupus/
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Lupus is a chronic, autoimmune disease which causes inflammation of various parts of the body, especially the skin, joints, blood and kidneys. According to the Lupus Foundation of America, more people have lupus than AIDS, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, sickle-cell anemia and cystic fibrosis combined. Pretty frightening figures for a disease that doesn't get much air time. This site provides current information, a calendar of events, a health forum, research library, and info about causes, symptoms, testing, and treatment. Visually unexciting but very informative.
Overall Rating: 15
Hyundai Motor
URL: http://www.hmc.co.kr/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
The criteria for judging a corporate site need to take into account whether or not the product is presented effectively and how much info is provided. In that regard, Hyundai does pretty well. Here you can view photos of all Hyundai models, get specs, and read the corporate profile. On the Sponsorship page learn about the Asan Foundation funded by Hyundai in '77, which reportedly provides "state-of-the-art" medical services, subsidizes social welfare institutions, funds research projects, and awards scholarship grants; where and for whom remains a mystery. Links to Korean culture pages as well.
Overall Rating: 15
Natasha's Cafe
URL: http://www.natashascafe.com
Category: Shopping
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
More of a New Age J. Peterman's than anything else, Natasha welcomes you to her cafe with "A Drum, a Dress, and a cup of Turkish Coffee." She sits facing her visitors wide-eyed, decked-out in exotic cap and robe, hands held together in meditation. Natasha will share her soulful observations of inanimate objects, and then try to sell them to you. About the Weeping Buddha woodcarving, she says, "I see a strong handsome man not hesitant to express his emotions... I like what I see... I like touching him." You can read about her husband's Greek adventures, the inspiration behind the Greek Sheepskin Vest ($195). How 'bout an African Thumb Piano, a Jembe Drum, Egyptian Pendant, or Afghani Freedom Fighter Hat? As annoying as the travelogue sales captions are, everything looks nice.
Overall Rating: 15
Women's International Center
URL: http://www.wic.org/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
The aim of Women's International Center (WIC) is to acknowledge, honor, and encourage women and to celebrate "their positive, enduring contributions to humanity through the Living Legacy Awards." You can read bios and learn all about recipients of said awards: Maya Angelou, Corazon Aquino, Peggy Lee, Phyllis Diller, just to name a few. WIC also works to inform and educate women about the possibilities of the Internet. Read about the history of women in America, various funds and scholarships set up by WIC, hear words of wisdom from famous women, and browse a host of women's resources on the Net. Nicely designed, if just the slightest bit stuffy.
Overall Rating: 15
Lilly
URL: http://don.io-online.com/~lillymag/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
There's not much to this fashion mag that claims to "make sense of fashion," but what there is is well -presented. You get a synopsis of the current fashion trends in clothes, color, and hair, and a single informative health/beauty piece. Check out the offerings of top designers and test your biorhythms...all in one locale. But you won't get a lot of substance for your visit and, at the time of this writing, the Back Issues url couldn't be found. Hopefully, editor Lubina Bogoeva will work on beefing up the content.
Overall Rating: 15
VamPress
URL: http://cc.usu.edu/~slh4w/vampire/vampire.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Laborious, repetitive stories and poems about fangs, blood, necks and the erotic combination of the three comprise this site. The Vampire Paper, a work in progress by the Web mistress, is however, informative and thoughtful. Unfortunately, the site is marred by misspellings throughout. The author of it all is Poppy Z. Brite, who has five books to her credit and numerous short stories, all of which are described as "erotic horror." According to Poppy, there are many vampire pages, and a large following out there. What the appeal is I'm not sure. Or maybe I'd rather not know. I suppose, for the right vamfan, VamPress offers something bloody interesting.
Overall Rating: 15
Feff
URL: http://www.gti.net/dpalermo/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
A collegiate romp, Feff World is brought to you by Doug Pelermo and Joe Hewitt, whose combined talents deliver oft-funny writing and formidable graphics. Choose from two interactive projects, The Feff World Quiz and The Race for President. Visit Feff World's own cybersoap, Agnew Valley, a "never-ending saga". You can also learn everything there is to know about the mudpuppy, the official site mascot. A few comic links, a few laughs...lot's of potential, if not a whole lot of meat.
Overall Rating: 15
Art, Naked
URL: http://www.nj.com/artnaked
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0197
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
This page is actually a column for New Jersey Online and has the ad banners and slick production to prove it. Art Naked is all about a guy named Art. Da Column is devoted to Art's most recent doings. Art on Art is more of the same. In fact, Art writes almost solely about Art with minor asides on beer, bars, and bands. Art updates the column weekly. He's an early twenties "cyberjournalist" who's "looking for the right woman," and he's living at home which you can read about in the appropriately named piece "Living at Home Sucks." Worth a visit, I suppose, if you too are "in search of beer, babes, and fun"
Overall Rating: 15
Web Travel Review - Australia and New Zealand
URL: http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/nz
Category: Travel
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Compiled by one lone traveler, these trekking tales are a good read and will make you anxious to don hiking boots and head to Aukland. The focus here is much more on New Zealand, finally, with links to related sites including Mountain Biking Through New Zealand, excerpts from New Zealand Handbook, and a short history of the country. Check out photos and journal entries as well as in-depth pieces covering all sorts of adventures and characters, including takes from the Great Barrier Reef, The Flying Kiwi Tour, and "17 days with 17 Germans." Part of the larger Web Travel Review.
Overall Rating: 15
Harvard Business School
URL: http://www.hbs.harvard.edu
Category: Education
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Straight forward information about Harvard Business School, including admissions, curriculum, research projects, and alumni. Check out the HBS Publishing page to peruse the 6,000 books, videos, and multimedia programs available for order. The site is a gateway to a number of HBS resources such as the Baker Library online catalogue, but you need to be a Harvard student to use it. In the shocked version the university shield rotates in 3-D, which as about as exciting as this page gets. But then, how much fun is business school?
Overall Rating: 14
Chrysalis
URL: http://204.140.223.156/chrysalis/
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
This is the online version of a "recovery and transformation" magazine. The cover story is an interview with Beverly D'Angelo who talks about life without addiction, while another feature, titled "Drunks In The Bible" gives an overview of alcoholism in the land of Canaan. Then there's the piece from erstwhile child star Corey Feldman, "In My Own Words," in which he talks about his struggle with various substances. Did you know that Corey and Sam Kinnison used to do drugs together? A couple areas didn't load properly or at all. A resource guide to related sites is forthcoming.
Overall Rating: 14
Cymekebob
URL: http://www.wco.com/~cymekob/
Category: Music
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Cymekob is a small label specializing in Brazilian fare, and the site is as limited as the label's catalog, which consists of only four offerings. The covers are cool. The recordings run the gamut of Brazilian music from classical instrumentals on McNair and Kobialka to the vintage strings of Grapelli and Thielemans. Cymekob is the home of the IndieNet Music WWW Network, which has four other member labels, to which the site provides links: OZmosis, Lind, Black Tie Records, and Jazz Spheres.
Overall Rating: 14
Liquefaction Zone
URL: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/bigtlittlet/Liqui.htm
Category: Music
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
I don't exactly know what this is all about. Links to a Frank Zappa site, Enchanted Corncob Records, iRock, a page for a band called Beer For Dolphins, and other quirky locales. Though it's billed as a music site, there aren't any sound clips involved. Liquefaction Zone seems to be bent towards Zappa/Beefheart fans with lots of wacky aliases and inside information, about what I'm not sure. I found myself in a weird labyrinth where obscure personages with unspecified talents are lauded by other unknowns. Sites like this remind me of showing up at a party where everyone else knows each other. You'll know if the Liquefaction Zone is for you when you arrive.
Overall Rating: 14
H.W. Wilson: Rettig on Reference
URL: http://www.hwwilson.com/retintro.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Ouch. This one made my head hurt. It contains reviews of research books which in themselves contain ungodly amounts of information, so prepare for a lot of reading. In addition to well-written reviews, this site is useful to discover what subjects are out there to research: mushrooms, presidential papers, saints, angels, the future,.... There are references on historic places, shipwrecks, UFO's, the Arab-Israeli conflict, Bosnia Herzegovina, and British Humorists. You can also index reviews from earlier in the year as well as all of 1995.
Overall Rating: 14
WWW Home Appliance Repair Assistance Center
URL: http://www.shadow.net/~syncmast/
Category: Reference
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Would you like to know how a refrigerator works? Perhaps your trash compactor needs fixing? Welcome to the Home Appliance Repair Assistance Center. A lot of pages are under construction, so I was disappointed when I tried to get tips on repairing a gas range and a dishwasher, but the clothes washer insight was helpful. Then again, maybe home appliances are not the highlight of this site. I mean it pales compared to the homepage of a Home Appliance contributor. Click over to the Hackrbum home page and learn about UFO's, Bible prophecy, and Government secrecy. Unfortunately the page titled "Hackrbum's View on the End of the World" could not be found. What do you think that means?
Overall Rating: 14
College Lacrosse
URL: http://www.centennial.fandm.edu/lacrosse/mainmenu
Category: Sports
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
I'm sorry, but this site is a severe eye-glazer. Not a single graphic or textual variation. Line after line of players' names, game scores, record holders, and international team statistics. No links, no nothing, and all of it done in unyielding red, white, and blue type. Was I foolish to hope for more? Was it too much to ask for a little tongue in cheekiness? Something to lift the pall of stuffiness that hangs over this sport....probably for a very good reason. I try to be reasonable and imagine, what if I were a total lacrosse fanatic? What if I lived and breathed the sport.? Well, truth is I'd probably still be bored stiff at this site....or maybe I'd just be boring. C-2, A-1, T-2.
Overall Rating: 14
National Press Club
URL: http://town.hall.org/places/npc/
Category: Professional
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
This comprehensive site features all types of journalistic links, from CNN to reporters.org and six different search engines. Extremely well put together resources allow for access to every major news site, and a slew of lesser-kowns like The Beat Page, not to mention wire services galore. This is *the* place for news junkies and investigators.
Overall Rating: 14
California Travel Parks Association
URL: http://www.campgrounds.com/ctpa/
Category: Travel
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Primarily a home base for members of the CTPA, most of whom are campground or RV park owners, this site lets you find any campground in the west (whose owner is a member). Click on the tag for California, Nevada, or Oregon, and you can search by region, city name, campground name, accommodations, etc. Since there are 500 listings, chances are you'll find the place you're looking for. If you're a member of the CTPA, the Professional Services page puts you in touch with all the other members. The site is not much to look at, but it will help you get to places that offer a more impressive view.
Overall Rating: 14
Docs Online
URL: http://www.docsonline.com/
Category: Health & Fitness
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
DocsOnline calls itself "the premier health care directory" and promises that you can "find health care professionals or hospitals in your area based on your specific health care needs." Hmm, well if you're looking for a general physician, you'd better have the Rocky Mountain bends: the only listing is for a Frisco Medical Center in Frisco, CO, that specializes in altitude-related illness. Looking for a plastic surgeon? You're in business if you live in Arkansas or New Jersey. And if you're browsing online for a hospital, you can choose from The Burke Rehab center in White Plains or New York City's Eye and Ear infirmary. Search for a dentist with the same bleak results. Is this a joke?
Overall Rating: 14
Delta Airlines
URL: http://www.delta-air.com/
Category: Corporate
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Delta's site offers visitors a lot of travel information, even if they're not planning on flying with the airline. Drop by the Executive Woman's Travel Network (not just for executive women), the Plane Fun game room, hokey travelogue entries from a frequent Business Class flyer, and all kinds of flight info and Delta News. You can also get weather information across the world and sports updates for U.S. cities. Problem is, each page takes forever and a day to load, and some never load at all. Which is ok, I suppose...unless you have a plane to catch.
Overall Rating: 14
Digital Matinee
URL: http://www.inewsradio.com/inr/cinema/
Category: Film
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
There's not a whole lot of variety in this site--kind of a thin movie fanzine with a focus on blockbuster fare. There's an up-close-and-personal Real Audio encounter with Famke Janssen of Golden Eye, which, like many of the links, doesn't work properly. Even so, if you're interested in her measurements or her stance on guns ("sexy and beautiful to look at") tune in here for related sites and James Bond info. Real Audio reviews of not-too-current-releases such as Broken Arrow and Mr. Holland's Opus are available, as well as box office grosses and awards. A shredded banner GIF and assorted other technical problems make this one, from Internet News Radiom, a bit of a bummer.
Overall Rating: 13
New Mexico Gay Rodeo Association
URL: http://www.swcp.com/~rkmartin/nmgra.html
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
As you might guess, this site delivers a calendar of events and detailed information about New Mexico Gay Rodeo activities. Links to the New Mexico AIDS Emergency Fund and the New Mexico AIDS Services Food Bank, but I wasn't able to find any information on the larger Gay Rodeo Association (referred to without explanation as IGRA) or links to any related sites. *From the Chute*, the NMGRA newsletter is expected soon.
Overall Rating: 13
Internet Music World
URL: http://www.mw3.com/imw
Category: Music
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
This is a no-frills zine targeting music-related people who need to stay Web savvy. Articles in the most current issue (Winter 96) run the gamut from *Internet for Dummies*-type explanations to Industry CEOs' take on music and the Web. It all seems a little stale. The most dynamic part of the site is its link to Baudway Communications Music Interactive page which makes a more concrete and interesting connection between music technology and its Web applications.
Overall Rating: 13
Public Relations Society of America
URL: http://www.prsa.org/
Category: Professional
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), headquartered in New York City, is the world's largest organization for public relations professionals. The odd thing is, this site is as visually interesting as a cardboard box. I mean, isn't public relations about selling an image, a product, a service, and making it seem appealing? Wouldn't you think a site from the PRSA would try to integrate a little flash and color? What you do get here is Tactics, their monthly newspaper, updates on seminars, locations of PRSA chapters, and lists of available resources. It's hard to get excited about any of it. Maybe the PRSA needs a little PR of its own.
Overall Rating: 13
8 Bold Souls
URL: http://www.suba.com/~ltipxred/
Category: Music
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Well, this is apparently intended as a promotional site for an assembly of veteran musicians called *8 Bold Souls*. Technical problems abound and half the souls have their bio pages under construction. I wanted to learn something about Black Herman, "World's Famous Zulu Magician," who gave *8 Bold Souls* his official endorsement, but, alas, it was not to be. His URL was also not to be found, but maybe that's because he's currently performing his "most noted miracle, the 'human seed,' buried six feet under, deprived of air and dependent on the teachings of the ancient yogis..." I swear I'm not making any of this up.
Overall Rating: 12
PlanetOut
URL: http://www.planetout.com
Category: Lifestyles
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: Yes
Author: Eric Meub
The heterosexual majority may be willing to settle for a Global Village, but PlanetOut offers the gay, lesbian, bi and trans community a City. And it's a city with a heart. "Imagine a world" says founder and president Tom Reilly, "where everyone can be exactly who they really are." At first blush, this invokes a spectrum of lifestyles, from circuit-party boys to opera divas, dykes-on-bikes to lipstick lesbians. But there's a loftier ambition here: "Online" as Reilly puts it, "is a great place to *practice* coming out." The queer community includes folks who live remote from city resources, or who have to combat isolation and loneliness. PlanetOut offers comfort, support, community, and identity. And it does so with energy, flair, and a fresh presentation. Winsome photos of couples and individuals underscore, with all the polish and wholesomeness of a Gap advertisement, the message of acceptance. Hell, straights have benefited from good PR all these years, why not queers? The images are fun for those already out as well as encouraging for those still in the closet. Some will protest that packaging homogenizes diversity. The photos, however, try to capture that diversity, at least with regard to gender and race. The only images I missed were those of our elders: "Queer" is not synonymous with "young", after all. PlanetOut offers destinations such as "People", for connecting with individuals, "NetQueery", a "dashboard" to gay Internet resources, and "Civic Center", the site's political core, providing links to important queer political organizations: one-stop-shopping for gay activism. The informational content of PlanetOut is found in "QRD" and "Kiosk". "QRD" (Queer Resources Directory) is the Main Library in this gay metropolis. This is no-nonsense stuff. Visitors can access up-to-date material on HIV, racism, state and federal legislation, religious intolerance, you name it. The destinations in "Kiosk" could be satisfying sites in themselves: There's "PopcornQ", a critically acclaimed film and video directory that opened last June; "News Planet" surveys domestic and international events of queer interest; And my favorite, "Shout": a showcase for everything queer in the arts and entertainment. Reviews can be found under "Shelf-Life", "Flix", "Spins", "MMMedia", while "The Box" provides an exhaustive survey of upcoming queer-related television programming. The gay, lesbian, bi and trans community has often suffered for its lack of cohesion. No mere Web site can solve that, but PlanetOut provides a haven of knowledge, nurture and dignity: a real Home in the City.
Overall Rating: 18
Yale C/AIM WWW Style Manual
URL: http://info.med.yale.edu/caim/StyleManual_Top.HTML
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
This is one of the most venerable and respected webmaster reference sites on the Internet, and with good reason. As they put it, "The advice you will find here is aimed at the practical concerns of bending and adapting a relatively primative authoring and layout tool (HTML) to purposes it was never really intended to serve (graphic page design)." They accomplish their goal with, you guessed it, style. Very few things on the Web are sublime enough to make a webmaster's heart go pitty-pat, but this site certainly will.
Overall Rating: 18
Science Friday Kid's Connection
URL: http://www.npr.org/sfkids/index.html
Category: Kids
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
What an utterly cool site! Supplementing a show on public radio, this site allows children to perform fun experiments while learning about gravity, inertia, the brain, plastics, insects, emerging diseases and, yes, even human reproduction. Every week's edition of the radio show has two topics and this site is updated weekly during the school year to provide additional information, every bit of which is entertaining and thought-provoking, even for adults. In fact, forget the kids and wander around for yourself. You'll have a blast just following the related links in their archive. Cool, cool, cool.
Overall Rating: 18
Inquiry.com
URL: http://www.inquiry.com
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
Accurate, interesting, straightforward information is available here for programmers and Web weenies. Whether your interests lie in HTML, CGI and PERL, or in Delphi, C++, Visual BASIC and Power Objects, you'll learn something during your visit. Industry exterts answer user questions in English instead of hexidecimal code (their native tongue), which is A Good Thing. Their answers are credible and easy to understand. Webmasters will want to visit the TechTalk forum here and visit the searchable database of more than 20 technical computer magazines. And the site looks pretty good, too. What else do you want for free?
Overall Rating: 18
All Politics
URL: http://www.allpolitics.com/
Category: Political
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
All Politics is a joint venture between Time-Warner and, um, well now that you mention it, Time-Warner. Turner Broadcasting was in there somewhere, but then Time-Warner consumed them like a tasty morsel. So, nevermind. Anyway, this attractive and informative site is updated daily and contains US political news, analysis, commentary, polls, games, hot topics, audio clips, video clips, a search engine and more. There's enough content here to drown in. One complaint: They seem to have left out the audio clip of Bob Dole saying "Pinch me, but..." I really wanted that one.
Overall Rating: 18
Graf Cafe
URL: http://www.tiac.net/users/phage/
Category: Art
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
Graf Cafe is targeted at graffiti fans. It features more than 300 photographs of graffiti from Boston neighborhoods, organized by location. There's also a surprisingly polished and sometimes wry FAQ to explain the vocabulary (tagging, bombing, piecing), acronyms and subculture, as well as recent developments such as the emerging sticker movement. The splash page features sophisticated 3D graphics and HTML "onMouseOver" fun. Links to eight pro-graffiti and two anti-graffiti sites. Their philosophy: "A writer is not a petty vandal, he neither smashes car windows nor overturns gravestones; a writer is an artist."
Overall Rating: 18
MSNBC
URL: http://www.msnbc.com
Category: Media
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
Sure, Bill Gates is a subterranean nudnick and his company, Microsoft, hopes someday to supplant motherhood and apple pie in our affections. But consarn it, MSNBC isn't half bad. Putting aside the question of its credibility as a reliable source of accurate and unbiased information, MSNBC is pretty to look at, and there's no denying it uses an awful lot of words, the bulk of which are updated frequently. Still, it's very sad that so much of our news is filtered through giants like Time-Warner, Disney, Microsoft, Westinghouse, and General Electric. Aside from the unfortunate lineage, MSNBC rocks.
Overall Rating: 18
Epicurious
URL: http://www.epicurious.com/a_home/a00_home/home.html
Category: Media
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
Catering (pun intended) to the tastes (again) of an insignificant little niche market described only as "people who eat," Epicurious will probably cause much slobbering and drooling and smacking of lips. If, while visiting Epicurious, your considerable drool short-circuits the keyboard, don't say you weren't warned. Look around a little bit and you'll encounter the recipes of famous chefs and four-star restaurants, restaurant reviews, and a guide to the best eateries in 10 major US cities; also, kitchen hints, ideas for entertaining, wine expertise, nutrition data, contests, a dozen user forums, and much more. Better tuck a napkin into your collar before browsing.
Overall Rating: 18
INTERNET ADDRESS FINDER
URL: http://www.555-1212.com
Category: Reference
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
Redundant, redundant, redundant. How many such directories must there be? Yahoo! lists more than 35 of these so far. They're spreading like kudzu. What somebody ought to do is make a page like Savvy Search that presents a user with one or two text entry fields and then searches all of these directories in one fell swoop. This site is great, but so are many of the others and each of them includes millions of entries. If their massive databases are virtually identical and their search results are virtually identical, why do we need so damn many of these things?
Overall Rating: 18
THE WEATHER RESOURCE
URL: http://www.buffnet.net/~glf/
Category: Reference
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
It's all here: Precipitation, humidity, wind-chill factor, barometric pressure, the tides, sunrise, sunset, full frontal nudity. It's an emotional roller coaster, with thrills, chills and spills. You'll laugh. You'll cry. It's the feel-good website of the year. It was great. I liked it even better than "Cats." But come on. Cloud cover in Australasia? Not Australia, mind you, but Australasia. Apparently someone, somewhere cares. Yeah, it's comprehensive and well organized and it all works. For what it is, it's great. If you need it, the Weather Resource will be there for you, and you're welcome to it.
Overall Rating: 18
Universal Pictures
URL: http://www.mca.com/universal_pictures/
Category: Film
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
The Universal Pictures Web site features all the bells and whistles anyone would expect from a major movie studio. This site is enhanced with Shockwave, VRML, Java, animated GIFs, and no doubt at least one kitchen sink they had lying around. The Coming Attractions section provides information about movies roughly one month prior to their theatrical release, including QuickTime clips. A nice touch: every QuickTime clip is available at a quality of either 5 or 10 frames per second, providing the visitor with a choice between quick or pretty. Games, photos, and audio clips available for every visitor's dining pleasure.
Overall Rating: 18
ROLLERBLADE
URL: http://www.rollerblade.com
Category: Sports
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
This site can be viewed in either a high or low-bandwidth version and sports a great-looking design by Adjacency (www.adj.com), purveyor of spiffy Web sites. The site contains nine sections, including instructions for skating and a directory of events, places and associations related to the sport/fad/empire/religion of in-line skating. The directory even includes resources for skaters in such far-flung locales as Alaska and Tahiti. Why anyone in Tahiti would want to risk road rash and broken teeth is beyond me.
Overall Rating: 18
HOTLIST ANYWHERE
URL: http://www.cntfl.com/hotlist/
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
If these folks aren't in it for the money, they're missing a sure thing. Promoted and financed properly, this site could be right up there with Yahoo! or Infoseek. Hotlist Anywhere allows its users to access their bookmark/hotlist files from any computer on the Internet, for free. Surprisingly, only 610 people are using the service so far, even though it appears to be pretty much bug-free. This site would be particularly useful for those with multiple Internet accounts. Be the first on your block.
Overall Rating: 17
Small Office
URL: http://www.smalloffice.com
Category: Professional
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
A very attractive site from the editors of the magazines Home Office Computing and Small Business Computing. Useful information on a variety of subjects is never more than two clicks away. Practical tips and techniques, more than 50 external links, and even a contest are available. There's also the lowdown on purchasing printers, fax machines and cellular phone service, and the like. A Boolean search allows you to rummage through past editions of the magazine. To test your financial well-being, go to http://www.smalloffice.com/hoc-bin/play.
Overall Rating: 17
UNCOVER WEB
URL: http://www.carl.org/uncover/
Category: Media
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
CARL unCover purports to be an "online article delivery service, a table of contents database, and a keyword index to nearly 17,000 periodicals." This Website is one of several available ways to access the CARL unCover database, which includes more than 7 million articles in English, with 5,000 more added each day. Searches are free, but ordering the full text of an article will set you back $8.50 plus a copyright royalty fee. Or, for $20 a year, the bibliographic results of your prescribed search strategy will be e-mailed to you on a regular basis.
Overall Rating: 17
LISTING LINK
URL: http://www.listinglink.com
Category: Reference
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
Although parts of this site remain under construction, as a whole it looks very promising. Listing Link offers real estate listings and photos from all over and for pretty much every type of property, whether residential or commercial, industrial or farmland. Hoping to find commercial office space in Walla Walla or a grassy knoll in Dallas? Interested in contacting every real estate agent in your cousin Melvin's area code? Want to get one mortgage each from every bank with an Internet presence? If you want to know something about real estate, start here. You could do worse.
Overall Rating: 17
The Return of the Blues Brothers
URL: (http://www.mbcmr.unimelb.edu.au/blues/)
Category: Film
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
In Australia, this Belushi-Aykroyd flick is now attracting the same sort of fervent following that *Rocky Horror Picture Show * has enjoyed in the U.S. for so many years. On a mission from God, some Elwood evangelists assembled this site for their born-again brethren. If you've ever wanted to do a keyword search of the BB screenplay, you now possess that power. Available for download are more than thirty images and seventy sound clips, as well as trivia and character bios. Will this site knock the rubber biscuits out of your soul, man? If so, that's your personal business.
Overall Rating: 17
The Island of Doctor Moreau
URL: http://www.drmoreau.com
Category: Film
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
Prepare to be shocked, as this site makes heavy and interesting use of Macromedia's Shockwave plug-in. Better than caffeine-on-a-stick for masking sleepiness, this site doesn't need an audience to have hours of good, clean fun all by itself. It zooms from page to page without provocation, plays sound clips and little animations, and doesn't care especially whether anybody is there to watch it whoosh and twirl or hear it chirp and squeal. It's interesting, though, and reminds us of what we used to say in the old country, "Not to eat flesh -- that is the law."
Overall Rating: 17
Empire
URL: http://www.erack.com/empire/
Category: Film
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
This site is produced by the British movie magazine *Empire*, in partnership with CompuServe. Featuring sections like "Blokes in Frocks" and "Top 10 Movie Psychos," the site's approach is rude and impertinent, which of course counts strongly in its favor. Which stars have broken which bones? Which plastic movie star inspired which disfigured plastic action figure? Who's been arrested, and what for? Empire also features movie reviews, consistent with the rest of the site in their cheeky approach to Hollywood and beyond. Empire is attractive, but it's poorly implemented frames will hold you hostage as you follow external links.
Overall Rating: 17
NINA
URL: http://www.washington.edu:1180/bibsys/mattf/nina/
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
NINA has a very slow server and slow-loading graphics, even on a T-1, but those who wait will be duly rewarded. Anyone who played with a Spirograph as a kid will feel right at home here. Using Java, the user controls the number of lines and colors used, some technical settings, and even the speed at which NINA draws each new design. NINA is an early masterpiece of Java implementation, and so requires a Java-compliant browser. For those lacking Java, a gallery is included to illustrate what NINA can do once she's up and running.
Overall Rating: 16
Kid's World
URL: http://www.kidsworld.com
Category: Kids
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
Can you say sugar shock, boys and girls? We knew you could. Okay, so it's not as cloying as, say, Baby Bop. But the ol' Bopster would feel right at home. This site is utterly, hopelessly, brazenly harmless, except to adults. Adults who linger will suffer terribly. Children with an especially high glucose tolerance will enjoy the games and activities, which develop reading, arithmetic, and basic science knowledge. The site is graphics-heavy and relatively slow-loading. The whole sugary blob is sponsored by game maker 7th Level, and should serve as a nice intro for young'uns new to the Internet.
Overall Rating: 16
Klaas Foundation for Children
URL: http://www.klaaskids.inter.net/index.htm
Category: Kids
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
This site has a lot going for it beside the obvious accolades it deserves for working to safeguard kids. The foundation's goal is to "stop crimes against our children in this generation," and some of the ideas explored here make that vitally important aim seem within reach. For those unfamiliar with the case, 12-year old Polly Klaas was abducted from her home in Petaluma, California in October, 1993. She was later found murdered. Regrettably, the site devotes as much attention to Marc Klaas, Polly's father, as it does to the issue of child protection. But perhaps that's what is needed: a visible advocate who never shuts up -- like a smoke alarm, his shriek will someday save lives.
Overall Rating: 16
The Schoolhouse Rock Page
URL: http://iquest.com/~bamafan/shr/
Category: Kids
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
Schoolhouse Rock devotees everywhere will get a kick out of this site, the be-all and end-all of Schoolhouse Rock worship. Who could have guessed that those clever educational ditties from mid-1970s Saturday mornings would become a cottage industry in the wired 90s? Roughly 65 megabytes of WAV files and the lyrics to every song are joined here by information about licensed clothing, audio CDs, CD-ROM, books, videos and more. Even the graphics on the web site are video captures (poor quality ones) from the series. Strangely, there are no video clips. Now, everybody sing: "I'm just a bill..."
Overall Rating: 16
Superkids.com
URL: http://www.superkids.com
Category: Kids
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
Parents and teachers looking for educational software will be thrilled by this very dry site. Children will be repelled. Reviews describe games with language like "a multidisciplinary program built around a spelling model" and rate software according to such categories as methodology and proxy-parent value, as well as the more obvious fun factor and ease of use. Program reviews can be viewed alphabetically, by category, or by price. The restrained, stuffy graphics create an antiseptic, corporate report look. Wear a frown and your hair in a bun to get in the proper mood for this one.
Overall Rating: 16
2323 Silicon Valley Park
URL: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Park/2323/
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
A high school student in New Jersey is the guiding force behind this attractive and friendly site for QBASIC programmers. He's sort of a BASIC groupie and the site includes his fanzine for the language. Also included is an HTML version of the FAQ for the comp.lang.basic.misc newsgroup. The text on a few pages is difficult to read (dang those backgrounds, anyhow), but every page is at least interesting to look at. Due to his sophisticated graphics and obvious hard work on this site, we'll forgive his hyperlink to those insidious evil-doers Hootie and the Blowfish.
Overall Rating: 16
Adrenalin
URL: http://www.calweb.com/~dstoflet/
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
Java, I tell you, Java! The guy is nutty about Java. Sure, there's some other stuff here, but don't forget his work in... JAAAAAAAAAAVAAH! I'll bet he says it over and over again, just to let the word roll around on his tongue. Mmmmmmmm, how wonderful it feels just to say it. He dabbles in Visual BASIC, does some screwy things with Netscape-style frames and has a spiffy Web tour thingamabob you can take for a spin, but Java is where his heart is. Lucky thing for us he's willing to share tips and examples (source code for Applets and such) particularly for incorporating Javascript into websites.
Overall Rating: 16
Life on the Internet
URL: http://www.screen.com/understand/topics.nclk
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
The best thing about this TV show-related site is its external links. That's not meant as a slam, but rather as a tribute. There are roughly 400 external links here, pointing to all sorts of Internet and Web information. Each of the 13 TV episodes is supplemented by a written summary page with 10 or so outside links. The topics are encryption, making money, e-mail, medicine, Hollywood, publishing, electronic cash, Usenet, music and audio, religion, education, demographics, and the future. The threaded conversations are mostly stupid. The "Beginner's Guide" section features 300 of the site's external links.
Overall Rating: 16
The Electronic Frontier Foundation
URL: http://www.eff.org
Category: Political
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is dedicated to protecting and promoting the civil liberties of Internet denizens. Working to guarantee the free flow of information both public and private, the EFF is poised on the outside edge of digital media law. They led opposition to the "Clipper Chip" and the Communications Decency Act, fought the Church of Scientology, and created the online Blue Ribbon Campaign against censorship. Anyone who spends time online has been affected by the efforts of the EFF, and their site is well worth your time, if you care about your rights.
Overall Rating: 16
BIG YELLOW
URL: http://www.bigyellow.com
Category: Reference
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
This searchable directory of phonebook yellow pages from across the nation would benefit greatly from an organizational structure similar to--now, let me know if anybody gets confused at this part --the yellow pages. In fact, any organizational structure whatsoever would help. A supposed point-and-click interface, this one expects users to do a lot of typing. To be useful the site requires that you already know the name and address of the business you want a listing for. That goes against everything our yellow pages forefathers stood for. Check your local yellow pages under "Duh."
Overall Rating: 16
CLASSMATES ONLINE
URL: http://www.classmates.com
Category: Reference
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
A way for former high school friends to find one another, including an e-mail address registry. So far there are listings for ex-students from more than 18,000 high schools in the US and Canada (as well as a few American schools overseas). Registration is free, but a one-time $15 membership allows a user to post a 250-word bio and a hyperlink to any one URL. Registration is intuitive, but takes a long time when the web server is bogged down. A list of cities in California (99 K) took four or five minutes to appear.
Overall Rating: 16
Filmmaker Magazine
URL: http://www.filmmag.com
Category: Film
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
This highly specialized site is intended for the smallest of minority groups: Independent filmmakers. Long afflicted by The Man, indie filmmakers developed a subculture of their own, gathering together frequently in dark rooms called "theaters" to indulge their special needs. In our more enlightened times, filmmakers are free to do as they please, without fear of persecution. So far, five editions are available in this online variation of the quarterly magazine. The site's designer uses Frames effectively and doesn't go nuts with animated GIF files. Perhaps the nicest feature is the daily news feed, from IndieWire.
Overall Rating: 16
The Low-Res Film Festival
URL: http://www.lowres.com/menu.html
Category: Film
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
This site celebrates an underground festival of ultra-short films, most of which were created using the Macintosh computer. Low-Res attracts the best and the brightest to try their hand at making films less than 5 minutes long. Don't be fooled into thinking you're getting a whole baby film when you download one of the QuickTime zygotes available here, though. You must attend the traveling festival to see the real thing. The presentation of the material on the site is very strong despite the few graphics. And if you're interested in getting down to the work, the Do It Yourself section is definitely worth your time.
Overall Rating: 16
MIDLINK MAGAZINE
URL: http://longwood.cs.ucf.edu:80/~MidLink/
Category: Kids
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
The URL for this site is case sensitive, so be sure to capitalize the M and the L in MidLink, or you won't connect. This site is targeted at 10 to 15-year-olds and updated quarterly. Much of the content is provided by students, including a VR walkthrough of Ligon Middle School. If you ever wondered why earwax is significant in toothless whales, or questioned the equatorial connection between transvestitism and Vikings, or doubted the wisdom of bringing vinegar with you when you visit an Australian beach, this site is ready for you. Their FTP server is misconfigured, though.
Overall Rating: 16
THE LAST DON
URL: http://www.randomhouse.com/lastdon/
Category: Literature
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
The Last Don* is a novel by Mario Puzo about -- surprise! -- the Mafia. This attractive site has four sections: The Players, Puzo Speaks, Puzo Profile, and Test Your Loyalty. The Players shows eight illustrations of characters from The Last Don. Each illustration is a button leading to a brief character bio. Puzo Speaks reprints part of an essay Puzo wrote in 1972 about writing *The Godfather* novel and script. Puzo Profile is a short piece written by Puzo's editor about what a cuddly grandfather type Puzo has become at the age of 75. Test Your Loyalty is a simple game.
Overall Rating: 16
FLORIDA GATORS CYBERSWAMP
URL: http://www.cvinc.com/gators/
Category: Sports
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
With its red, white, and blue,...and green and brown motif, this unofficial site looks like Old Glory with sinusitis and the stomach flu. Oblivious (or maybe not) to football's homoerotic subtext, the site's message board includes innumerable messages in which Gator fans and their opponents breathlessly discuss one another's sexual orientation, compare motherly affection, and make sado-masochistic plans for the weekend--all the while using very uncivilized language (hubba-hubba). Content includes schedules, polls, rankings, a chat room, photos, sound clips and news articles. Coming soon to this same server is the Burt Reynolds Institute for Theater Training.
Overall Rating: 16
HTML BAD STYLE PAGE
URL: http://www.earth.com/bad-style/
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
Every obnoxious, ugly, amateurish thing on the web, all in one place? What a great idea! Seriously, this page by Tony Sanders will be useful to HTML beginners or to the unfortunate schmucks using PageMill 1.0 who think they're cutting-edge. Bad Style specifies the correct placement and order of tags, even linking to the heathens whose honest mistakes first caught Sanders' attention. Apparently nobody has made any mistakes on the Web since October 3, 1995, since that's the last time this page was updated.
Overall Rating: 15
CROSS-PLATFORM PAGE
URL: http://www.mps.org/~ebennett/
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
This page provides information on converting image, video, audio, data compression, and data encoding formats across common computer platforms. It's not much to look at, but jeez! There's an incredible amount of information here, available in English or Japanese with other translations a possibility in the future. Includes pointers to FAQ files and to a seemingly infinite number of useful toys for geeks. Even someone on a text-only browser like Lynx could make great use of this page, which is a little strange for a Mac-generated site.
Overall Rating: 15
MESH MART
URL: http://www.cic.net/~rtilmann/mm/index.htm
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
Mesh Mart provides 3-D mesh object files for 3-D modeling artists and developers and for VR environment creation. It also provides a textures pointer page with some good, and some broken, links. The "Object Catalog" organizes the 3-D objects into both a topical index, sorted by 33 subcategories, and a listing by file source (either Mesh Mart, itself, or Avalon). Mesh Mart also includes a listing of tools, utilities and FAQs of interest to 3-D and VR megawhiz-wannabees. The mesh files appear to be of high quality.
Overall Rating: 15
Strange Foreign Objects in Dogs Feces
URL: http://members.aol.com/scroach1/poop.htm
Category: Bizarre
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
If you've ever felt a perverse respect for goats who can eat barbed wire or for sharks with whole bicycles in their gut, you're overlooking the little miracle worker in your own back yard. Dogs, too, will eat almost anything. This site doesn't yet contain photos or x-rays, but the poetic language makes up for that. Among the undigestible riches so far are soap, screws, valuable jewels, underwear, coins, scouring pads, kitty litter, car parts, toys, boxes of crayons, and strings of beads. It's only one page, but what a page it is! A certain reverence prevails.
Overall Rating: 15
SignWeb
URL: http://www.signweb.com
Category: Professional
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
Doubtless a lot of fetishists are accidental visitors to this one. The word "vinyl" is in the HTML source for the splash page a whopping 14 times, not to mention repetitions of "hot" and "tricks." What a disappointment it must be. SignWeb is a site for the folks who make banners and business signage. As such, it provides industry tips, articles on the biz and adverts for things like neon transformers and ballast, estimating software, and vinyl sources. Hmm, ... maybe not so disappointing after all.
Overall Rating: 15
Nerd's Heaven
URL: http://boole.stanford.edu/nerdsheaven.html
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
A directory of directories, this attempt at online Valhalla is appealing mostly due to its snazzy graphics. Ooh baby, just look at those graphics! But, um, that's not what the site is there for. It's supposed to link eventually to every online source for free and/or inexpensive software, regardless of platform or purpose. There are a lot of links here and some of them are really obscure. So, even though more than half the personal pages on the Web point to one or more of the sites on this list (ever hear of Yahoo?), it's probably worth a bookmark.
Overall Rating: 15
PoliticsNow
URL: http://www.politicsnow.com/
Category: Political
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
Sometimes, when a Daddy Website and a Mommy Website love each other very much, they decide to make a new, baby Website. That's the case here, sort of. The merging of ElectionLine and PoliticsUSA has created PoliticsNow, the content of which alternates between impressive and lackluster. Clearly, a lot of talented people work long hours every day on PoliticsNow, but it's still drab in many ways. Highlights: A searchable directory of more than 7,000 movers and shakers, an almanac of American politics, a searchable database of political news stories, and the sardonic "Hit List."
Overall Rating: 15
PythOnline
URL: http://www.pythonline.com/fakeopen
Category: Entertainment
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
PythOnline is for the Python (Monty) acolyte with time to kill. Not surprisingly, it's very funny in places, but the troupers are so wrapped up in being witty and self-referencial (not to mention self-reverential), they've forgotten about bandwidth and ease-of-use. Whereas Python was quick, Pythonline is plodding. Visitors can't even get from point A to point B without taking as many as seven unwanted steps between them. We're not all squawky-voiced pepper pots with endless free time. Your patience will be rewarded, but not enough. Nudge-nudge. Wink-wink. Say no more.
Overall Rating: 15
Theatre Direct, International
URL: http://theatredirect.com/
Category: Art
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
Theatre Direct, International seeks to become for live theatre what 777-FILM has become for movie theaters. Background information, showtimes, ticket sales and gossip are provided for live shows in New York, touring US stage companies, and London. The gossip seems like satire. To wit, did you know ex-Monkee Mickey Dolenz is writing a musical version of the 70s sitcom Happy Days? It premieres in London's West End before 1997. And, on Broadway next season, audiences will delight to a toe-tapping musical about the sinking of the Titanic. Somewhere out there, someone is trembling with anticipation.
Overall Rating: 15
MACZYNSKI'S INFO PAGE
URL: http://www.info-s.com
Category: Reference
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
Similar in spirit to what Yahoo! was when it was still on akebono.stanford.edu, Maczynski's has an organizational problem that will prevent it from becoming a popular resource: There is no organizational depth. That means respected newspapers are listed on the same page with art and literature zines, hobbyist publications, science fiction and whatever the cat dragged in. There are thousands of links, however, and this site is certainly worth at least one visit for a bookmark raid. The categories with the most listings are Music and Talk and Home Page Plus.
Overall Rating: 15
NAME BASE BOOK INDEX
URL: http://www.pir.org/
Category: Reference
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
Oh, what conspiracy theorists wouldn't give for a cross-referenced database of people and countries involved with real and imagined 20th century intrigue. Here at last is the site of their dreams. Information in the database is culled from hundreds of investigative books and countless periodicals published over the last 34 years. Returned search results come in a modified bibliographic form. William Casey=556 citations and James Carville=14. Also features book reviews and annotations in 20 broad categories.
Overall Rating: 15
Rosencranz And Guildenstern Are Dead
URL: http://www.susqu.edu/ac_depts/arts_sci/english/lharris/class/stoppard/rose.htm
Category: Film
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
This site never really explains itself. Is it intended as fan support of a wonderful play, or academic exploration of a brilliant playwright (Tom Stoppard)? Somebody's term paper? They never tell us. The play (and the movie) *Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead * is witty and wonderful, but ultimately a tragedy, in which these two minor characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet achieve identity only in death. As for the site, a huge image map download is a major weakness while a selection of audio and video clips is its strength. Read the terrific play before coming here for heightened enjoyment.
Overall Rating: 15
SANTA CLAUS HOME PAGE
URL: http://www.mofile.fi/rec/santa/
Category: Kids
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
The Santa Claus Home Page is sponsored by the Saint Nicholas Society, which sees Christmas as a "true sign of global unification" and a powerful force for understanding among people and cultures worldwide, particularly as the holiday's popularity grows each year. This site explains the way our modern celebration of Christmas and children's belief in Santa Claus has evolved from international traditions dating back at least 2,000 years, drawing elements from many different religions, Christian and otherwise. Also discussed are some of the ways Christmas, Santa Claus, and other traditions are dealt with in other countries. Without supervision, no self-respecting kid will hang out here.
Overall Rating: 15
THE ELAND CATALOGUE
URL: http://www.travelbooks.co.uk/
Category: Literature
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
This small publisher specializes in reissues of well-written travel books not currently in print. As a result, the Eland company has only ever published 39 books. The site is attractive, and tantalizing excerpts are available from all 39 travelogues. However, some of the books were written long ago and employ language which may prove offensive to modern readers. For example, one author refers in an excerpt to his chauffeur as "my ex-ricksha coolie." Put into its chronological context, the invective is not deliberate, but it does take a little getting used to.
Overall Rating: 15
CAM CORNER
URL: http://www.ovd.com:80/camcorner/
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
Not much more than a glorified pointer page, Cam Corner links to CU-See Me sites and a lot of cameras on the Web. There's a strange pseudo-depth to this site: Click on an apparently external link and go to another internal page with a link to the same external site. What possible function could this serve? "This Month's Featured Cams" and "Recent Featured Cams" link to sites with updated still images. "The Classics" links to 38 other such sites, but the aforementioned pseudo-depth extendss those 38 links over six pages. Why?
Overall Rating: 14
WEB COMPARE
URL: http://www.webcompare.com
Category: Web Technology
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
This site compares competing webserver software and various Web browser features. The site hasn't been updated in a long time -- in mid-June, they were referring to April in the future tense and describing upcoming changes that still haven't occurred. What this site does have, however, is a broad array of information about the specific strengths and weaknesses of 52 web servers and 11 web browsers. Many browsers are not listed, but the folks at webcompare.com know this and are a little sheepish about the shortfall. They promise more listings soon.
Overall Rating: 14
WWWF Grudge Match
URL: http://www.cheme.cornell.edu/~slevine
Category: Bizarre
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
Sort of a comic riff on pro wrestling, this site would actually work much better on radio than on the Web. It's a fun and funny idea, sure; this just isn't the medium. Imagine grudge matches between Imelda Marcos and Leona Helmsley, or between a Rottweiler and a Rottweiler's weight in Chihuahuas, or between 100 midgets and 500 centenarians. Imagine the gruesome spectacle of Gary Coleman and Webster, battling to the death. Now imagine reading interminably long scrolls of text on drab pages, stored on a busy server that refuses fully a quarter of all connections.
Overall Rating: 14
The Andy Kaufman Home Page
URL: http://fly.hiwaay.net/~bkm/akhome.htm
Category: Entertainment
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
The Andy Kaufman Home Page is friendly and respectful. It's full of testimonials and trivia concerning one of the strangest celebrities of the late 70s and early 80s. Kaufman, best-known for his role as mechanic Latka Gravas on the sitcom Taxi, was by turns a con artist, a performance artist, an actor, a stand-up comic, an Elvis impersonator, and wrestling champion. Single-minded in his pursuit of worldwide confusion, Kaufman died of cancer in 1984 at the age of 35. This site has none of his energy.
Overall Rating: 14
The Brown Flu
URL: http://www.arizonaweb.com/townhall/brownflu.html
Category: Political
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
The Brown Flu site may not be pretty, but it packs a whollop by promoting a controversial one-day nationwide sick-out by *Mexicanos* and Mexican-Americans on the day of the Republican National Convention. Organizers say if immigrant-bashers want an economy without immigrant labor, they should get what they wish for, then deal with the consequences. Agribusiness, the service industry, and other key sectors of the economy will come to a halt for one day if the protest succeeds. By the time you read this, of course, you should know how it went.
Overall Rating: 14
DC Comics
URL: http://www.dccomics.com
Category: Entertainment
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
DC Comics hasn't got much going for it. They've got a hilariously snotty legal proclamation of their "proprietary rights throughout the universe in perpetuity" for a site that apparently hasn't been updated in months. And the proclamation forgets alternate universes. What about the scofflaws of Earth 2? (Yeah, I know, that was destroyed during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.) What about Vertigo and Paradox Press, DC's imprints for adults? The site has streaming audio of old Superman radio serials, but only one chapter is available at a time, so most visitors will never hear the beginning of any story.
Overall Rating: 14
The Paintings of Vermeer
URL: http://www.ccsf.caltech.edu/~roy/vermeer/
Category: Art
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
The Paintings of Vermeer is a tribute to 17th century painter, Jan Vermeer. Only 35 of his paintings have survived and all of them are available here in digitized form. Vermeer's art was ignored for more than 200 years after his death, but in the nineteenth century his photorealistic work became widely recognized. Scholars suspect Vermeer's realism was the result of his using a camera obsura, one of the forerunners of the photographic camera. Intended for art scholars, the site makes the subject accessible for the layman as well.
Overall Rating: 14
SEE Worldwide
URL: http://www.tic.ab.ca/SEE/
Category: Media
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
The utterance, "eh?" in response to the SEE Worldwide site is not an anti-Canuck jab so much as a comment on the overall dreariness of this alternative newsweekly from Edmonton, Alberta. The print rag is probably a lot more interesting (I don't know), but the online edition is singularly uninspired. There's a lot of information here (lagging a bit behind it's newsstand "weekly" status), and the writing is wacky and irreverent. But the presentation of the mateiral practically defines "lackluster." One potential Brownie Point: In a brilliant stroke of irony, their "In the Web" column is apparently not available online.
Overall Rating: 14
His and Her Movie View
URL: http://www.his-hermovieview.com
Category: Film
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
This is what online content providers call "repurposed content" if they're being nice; "shovelware" if they're not. Shovelware can be well done or poorly done, and this site, supporting a TV show in Virginia, pretty well defines the low end of sloppiness. They don't even care enough about their work to fix their bread and butter, the reviews themselves. Riddled with stupid errors in English (typos, misused punctuation, pluralization mishaps, run-on sentences, subject-verb agreement errors, misspellings, lack of parallel structure, improperly-used homonyms, and more), the reviews are just plain awful. This is a sub-literate mess.
Overall Rating: 14
Sweater Productions
URL: http://jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu/~sweater/
Category: Film
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
This site has potential and even a little charm, but that's no reason to effervesce about it. The counterintuitive use in the table of contents of blue and purple type, usually reserved on the Web for new and used hyperlinks, is incomprehensible. Also annoying is the damned Java tickertape, which is even worse than the benighted