Cult of Macintosh
URL: http://cult-of-mac.utu.fi/
Category: Reference
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Tom Geller
Tired of apologizing for being a priest(ess) in the minority Sac sect? Celebrate your beliefs with similarly afflicted souls at the Cult of Macintosh! Like many churches, the focus here is on good works, and that means tons of Mac-related links to set you on the path to righteousness. Links are separated into 19 categories, and salted with salient commentary and clarifying notes. Search for shareware, read technical notes, find noted Sac industry figuresŠ this is the most complete Sac special-interest site I¹ve ever seen. It is, however, slow, so connect to one of its many ³mirror² sites in your area.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 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 (out of 18): 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 (out of 18): 18

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
URL: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/
Category: Reference
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
Considering buying a new car? Safety factors a major consideration? This well-designed presence of the NHTSA, home of those hardworking, cheerful crash test dummies, offers visitors a complete rundown on safety features, crash test ratings, theft ratings, recall information and compliance reports. It¹s a deep resource, well-laid out, and thorough. If there is a problem it has to do with documentation. As is too often the case with such info, it is a little difficult to understand the significance of the information you¹ve accessed. The site always concerns itself primarily with newer cars. Nevertheless, this is a fine resource.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18

MapQuest
URL: http://www.mapquest.com
Category: Reference
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Jose Alvear
MapQuest is the best interactive map on the Internet. (There. I said it, and I'll say it again.) The detail level on these maps is astounding. First choose your continent or country, then zoom in on the state, county, city, and finally your own block! Want to see the nearest hotels and restaurants? Just click on any local points of interest and‹voila‹they¹ll pop up on your map. The clickable maps make it easy to point and click to any area in North America as well as many of the major cities around the world. People who register (it's free) can personalize their maps and save them for later. Another feature, TripQuest, allows you to enter a starting point and destination, then gives you detailed driving directions. Incredibly enough, you can also search for business names and addresses anywhere in the U.S. and MapQuest will map their locations for you. Don't miss this one, folks. It¹ll keep you on track.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 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 (out of 18): 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 (out of 18): 18

alt.culture
URL: http://www.altculture.com
Category: Reference
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: Yes
Author: Patrick Joseph
Ostensibly a page to promote the book by the same name, the alt.culture Web site may be destined to overshadow it¹s much-praised, bestselling print predecessor. Tailor made for hypertext, the material here‹part dictionary of cultural literacy, part deconstructive commentary‹makes for an informative, entertaining, and freewheeling romp. A good deal of the fun here is in following whatever thread you find yourself on. A search of alt.culture¹s database for comic, Harry Shearer (you gotta start somewhere), led me down a connect-the-dots course marked by: Saturday Night Live; comedian, Adam Sandler; filmmaker, Tamra Davis; Hang Ten surfwear; and, finally, the ³infantilization² of street fashions. Of course, I needn¹t have followed that particular sequence nor stopped there. From infantilization, part of the so-called ³pathetic aesthetic², I could choose from close to thirty links, ranging from closely related entries, like Urban Outfitters, to others far-flung: What does Vick¹s VapoRub have to do with it? And the plentiful links are only half the story. The writing at alt.culture is consistently breezy and intelligent, packing in as much edification as the brief format allows. And even prosaic topics are given interesting treatment. A potentially numbing entry on pagers gives a short rundown on the ubiquitous gizmos, moving fluidly from sales figures to song lyrics from New York rappers, A Tribe Called Quest, and neologisms like ³beeper babies,² the nineties equivalent of ³latchkey kids². Off-site links supplement the material, as do photo images, soundclips, and video outtakes. The site is fully searchable and incorporates a number of WWW search engines as well. Visitors can also wend their way by autopilot or click ³random² to be dealt an entry from anywhere in the deck. Don¹t agree with alt.culture¹s take on some aspect of pop culture? Want to add an entry for some new phenomenon or upspeak? The site invites visitors to submit new entries and corrections for consideration. They also maintain a BBS forum, for what it¹s worth. The dominant strings when I checked involved a cat fight over Courtney Love¹s fitness as a mother and Tom Cruise¹s cultural status: Icon or no? That nonsense aside, alt.culture is da kine, as the kids like to say. At over 900 entries and growing, you can spend a lot of time down this particular rabbit hole. My only question is how they expect to sell any books? I am sure the paper version is a fine resource, but, friends, this one was made to be online.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 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 (³He¹s such an Urkel!²), movies, and music. Update your vocab or you could be considered to be a regular John-Boy.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 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 (out of 18): 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 (out of 18): 17

UK and Ireland Genealogy
URL: http://midas.ac.uk/genuki/
Category: Reference
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: MCM
The UK and Ireland Genealogical Information Service (GENUKI) is a huge collection of historical data from the UK and Ireland. You can dig into censuses, church records, obituaries, public records and a lot more, focusing your investigation on a specific county or all of England. If wading straight into all this information sounds a bit daunting, don't fret. GENUKI is much more than a hodgepodge of old records typed into a server by hunchbacked undergrads. Its creators also provide a well-written, informative guide to genealogical research that will have you digging up your family¹s roots in no time.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17

Libweb
URL: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Libweb/
Category: Reference
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: MCM
Libweb fans love to point out its most obvious positive qualities: Frequently updated links to over 900 library servers worldwide, finding aids, digital collections, extensive catalogs, and a lot more. Libweb is information access in its most effective form-a true testament to the usefulness of the Internet. It's a real shame, then, to think that so many visitors neglect one of Libweb's most compelling features: It allows you to talk, run, laugh, eat, scream and dance in the library! There aren't even any overdue fines (unless you forget to pay your ISP).
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17

Proximus Corporation
URL: http://www.proximus.com/
Category: Reference
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: Yes
Author: Wayne Cunningham
Damn near every issue of Popular Mechanics since 1965 has had an article on the car of the future which invariably has a video screen that allows the driver to pinpoint his or her location on a map, or scroll through various electronic maps to find the best route. Unless you buy your automotive accessories from The Sharper Image, though, you probably don¹t have an electronic map viewer on the dashboard yet. You do, however, have one on your computer. Proximus Corporation has put together a giant digital road map of the U.S., and licensed it to various Web directories, such as Yahoo!, Lycos, and InfoSeek. And while the Proximus home page itself is nothing to look at, it does links to all the licensee interfaces. Proximus has its own well designed interface that licensees can use, but some, like Yahoo!, have chosen to design their own. In any case, the functionality is basically the same, whatever the interface. Here¹s how it works: The first page allows you to enter a street address, city, state, and zip code. Clicking the submit button will then load another page with the map interface and a map of the requested vicinity. The exact location of the street address is marked with a red ³X.² Proximus claims you can find any address in the U.S. this way. The default map size is a 17K GIF image, but you can choose the medium size, 22K, or the large size, 28K, depending on how much time you want to spend downloading the thing. The interface also has a ³zoom² feature, so you can see how many cross streets there are between point A and point B. Or you can zoom out to find the nearest freeway offramp, etc. Clicking on the sides of the map will show you the next quadrant in whichever direction you choose, which means, I suppose, that you could click your way across the entire country. On some of the licensee sites there is an added feature that allows visitors to search for the geographic location of an e-mail address or domain name. As far as e-mail is concerned, the efficacy of such a search is problematic given the imperfect nature of e-mail registries on the Internet. And then, of course, there are all the deeper questions that arise in the face of this technology. Sure, the Proximus service is a boon for party hosts and their guests -- no need to sketch out the obligatory party map anymore, just type your address into the map server, print, and voila -- but it¹s also a windfall to net-savvy party crashers, repo men, and stalkers. Those who cherish their privacy above all else will, no doubt, find this one disquieting.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17

U.S. Gazetteer
URL: http://tiger.census.gov/cgi-bin/gazetteer
Category: Reference
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
An online marvel, the U.S. Gazetteer allows visitors to type in a city and state in the U.S. and pull up an inline, interactive map of that location, along with 1990 Census information. I typed in Galveston, TX as a test case. Automatically, the gazetteer gives me the population (59070), the map coordinates, and zip codes. From there you can go to specific census figures (I discovered that Galveston claimed one Aleut resident, circa 1990) or to a color map of the island generated by the Tiger Map Service. You can move the map¹s center with the mouse or by entering new coordinates, as well as zoom in and out on the image. Talk about the world getting smaller...
Overall Rating (out of 18): 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, it¹s a useful search center with a misleading name. It might more appropriately be called ³The Super Macmillan Library.²
Overall Rating (out of 18): 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 (out of 18): 17

The Quotations Page
URL: http://www.starlingtech.com/quotes/index.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
This is a great page, automatic bookmark. In fact, I like it so much I set the Random Quotations page as my browser¹s home. Every time I open a browser window, I get three or four new ones, from any one of several collections, including a database of longish Dave Barry outtakes; Ambrose Bierce¹s classic, *The Devil¹s Dictionary*, the best of deadpan comic, Steven Wright; and the excellent compendium assembled by the site creator, Michael Moncur. You can search any of the collections by keyword. Still can¹t find that one *bon mot* you¹ve been looking for? The page also links to other quotation resources. As Wright says, ³You can¹t have everything. Where would you put it?²
Overall Rating (out of 18): 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. There¹s 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, it¹s difficult to say which one is the end-all, but Big Book is definitely in the running.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17

Today¹s Calendar and Clock Page
URL: http://www.panix.com/~wlinden/calendar.shtml
Category: Reference
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: Yes
Author: Jon Phillips
Computers can¹t give us back rubs, or blend perfect vodka martinis, but they can free us from the drudgery of methodical number-crunching. Are you prepared to compute the countdown to the new millennium in years, months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds? That¹s right, friend, you¹ve got better things to do; swigging vodka martinis immediately comes to mind. But now computers can do busy work for busy people, and that¹s where Today¹s Calendar and Clock Page comes in. This site is nearly graphically barren, but infinitely compelling. As soon as you enter, you¹re hit with a barrage of numerical data to help you set your bearings across the space-time-history continuum. For example: ³Today is Sunday, March 17,1996Š Eastern Standard Time is 4:43 PMŠ This is the 11 week of the yearŠ This is the 77th day of the yearŠ Year 221 of American independenceŠ 45th year of H.M. Elizabeth II, Queen of CanadaŠ 3rd year of the 693rd OlympiadŠ Buddhist Year 2539Š Atomic Era 55Š Modified Julian Day 50159 Š Solar Cycle 17Š² And so on and so on until you¹re so terrified by your own universal insignificance, you decide to blend another vodka martini. Once you digest all of these date stamps ‹ 25 of them roll out as soon as you load the page ‹ you can move downward to 62 different links designed to put time into historical, cultural, religious, and even astronomical perspective. Some links serve purely utilitarian purposes. For example, IslamicTimer 2.1 is designed to help the Muslim faithful plan their days around times of prayer. Another link, The Moon Phase Page, provides you with an image of how the moon will look from earth based on time coordinates of your choice. Other links predict impending doom. The National Debt Clock keeps a running tally of the depth of our monetary mire. At press time, the number reached into 13 figures. Let¹s not get into specific dollar amounts, or once again you may be reaching for that martini shaker. The World Population Clock tells us that the globe is burgeoning to the tune of 6 billion souls, and by 2050, 9.5 billion earthlings may be jockeying for elbow room. Whether you¹re interested in utility or entertainment, the Clock Page is a fascinating resource. Now let¹s look forward to the day when ³wrist browsers² hit market.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 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 (out of 18): 16

Almanac of American Politics
URL: http://politicsusa.com/PoliticsUSA/resources/almanac/
Category: Reference
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Tom Geller
Want to find out more about your local representative? This is a great place to start. The Almanac of American Politics is a doorstop-size book in print ‹ huge, and costing upwards of $50 ‹ and it¹s one of the most complete references on congressional politics around. The good news is that the entire book is on this Web site, well organized by subject, state, and name. The bad news is that a conservative bias (it¹s published by the National Journal) colors the writing. It¹s not offensive, however, and how often can you say that in politics?
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16

The Genealogy Home Page
URL: http://ftp.cac.psu.edu/~saw/genealogy.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Tom Geller
The natural first response to this page is: ³There¹s too much stuff here. My head¹s gonna explode!² But if you¹ve ever tried constructing a genealogical chart on your own, you¹ll recognize it as a great help in a difficult trick. There¹s not much original material here, just hundreds of links in 13 categories, each one involving a different method for unearthing your family¹s past. It was more than enough to get me going: I was able to find an address for someone researching my ³untraceable² family. Maybe you will, too.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16

The Sexuality Library
URL: http://weber.u.washington.edu/~sfpse/ftpsite.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: MCM
Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it. Only humans have a Website for it, however. If you have sex-related questions, ideas, or interests, check out the Sexuality Library. Created by the Society for Human Sexuality (a "Sex-Positive Registered Student Organization at the University of Washington"), this site provides a detailed and diverse collection of literature on everything from bondage to birth control, from safe sex guidelines to polygamous Christian groups. The Library is the place to go for honest, open-minded insight into all facets of 20th century sexuality. Seekers of cheesecake GIFs (and surfers under age eighteen) should look elsewhere.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16

Martindale's Reference Desk
URL: http://www-sci.lib.uci.edu/~martindale/Ref.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: MCM
One can only imagine what Jim Martindale's house looks like. If his Website is any indication, every time the poor guy wants a cup of coffee he must have to climb over heaps of papers and publications, navigate through teetering mountains of gauges, beakers and monitors, while ignoring a cacophony of noise from telephones, tvs, radios, and fax machines. One can be sure, however, that Mr. Martindale is no stranger to the joys of java (the drink, that is). How else could he have created such an informative, educational, eclectic site? If there is an answer to that question, you'll probably find it somewhere in Martindale's Reference Desk.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16

The Virtual Reference Desk
URL: http://thorplus.lib.purdue.edu/reference/index.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: MCM
Need to find out a zip code, a phone number, how to spell a word, what time it is in Buenos Aires, or how many pecks equal a bushel? The Virtual Reference Desk will definitely steer you in the right direction. It's an impressive collection of links to massive electronic information resources (each link has a brief, clear description of the site). There are usually a number of choices in each category (three different major yellow pages servers, for instance), so you'll probably uncover exactly what you want to know. It's up to you to put that information to good use.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 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 (out of 18): 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 (out of 18): 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 (out of 18): 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 (out of 18): 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 (out of 18): 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 ³Duh.²
Overall Rating (out of 18): 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 (out of 18): 16

Full-text state statutes and legislation
URL: http://www.prairienet.org/~scruffy/f.htm
Category: Reference
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Unknown
Full-text State Statutes and Legislation on the Internet is a straight-forward site, listing the constitution and statutes of every state in the Union. This entire venture is put together by an individual who goes by the name of Scruffy. You can link to legislature-related sites or check out Scruffy's other offerings, like the Las Vegas Movie List, the ³You Just Might Be From Springfield, Illinois If....² page, and the ever-popular Poodle Schnauzer Page. It's nice to see that someone so serious about state legislatures, has the good sense to link to The Virtual Pet Cemetery.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 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 (out of 18): 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 (out of 18): 16

HouseNet
URL: http://www.housenet.com
Category: Reference
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Rachel Saidman
HouseNet is the do-it-yourselfers wet dream. Folks who like to spend their spare time installing skylights, ceiling fans, replacing sliding glass doors, or wainscotting the dining room will revel in the homespun advice from Gene and Katie Hamilton. The site has some thoughtful touches that go beyond mere "how-tos," with features such as "Do the job yourself vs. hiring someone to do it", time and budget projections, and another section called "Cut Your Utility Bills," which looks at alternative energy resources and other conservational strategies. Don't miss the tutorial on how to make a solar food dryer.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16

LawCrawler
URL: http://www.findlaw.com
Category: Reference
Issue: 0197
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Jose Alvear
Think of this as a Yahoo for lawyers. Just enter a few keywords and you'll get a wide array of documents of special interest to law researchers. This important resource cuts out the Info-dreck on the Internet and gets you just the legal information you need. They keep law journal abstracts and full texts of many cases. Of course, you can also browse their law categories: law journals, law reviews, worldwide law, law firms, law schools, government law information, law... publishers, organizations, case law and yet more law. In short, everything law. This is the next best thing to buying a subscription to the professional legal search system, WestLaw.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16

Rulers
URL: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/1058/rulers.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Jose Alvear
This is a great resource for journalists or those wanting to settle bar bets. You can find the heads of state or any country in the world: kings, queens, princes, princesses, presidents and prime ministers. Simply browse the country you¹re looking for and it lists every known ruler of that country, including dates in office and birthdates. Another option gives you a monthly chronicle of political events, with emphasis on changes of power and election results. Information only dates back as far as January 1,1996, however, but there¹s already so much. Rulers also maintains a list of people in charge of worldwide organizations like the United Nations, the Arab League, and the European Union. Interesting factoid: world rulers like to keep their birthdates secret, apparently.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 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 (out of 18): 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 doesn¹t mean someone¹s 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 (out of 18): 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 (out of 18): 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 (out of 18): 15

American Demographics
URL: http://www.marketingtools.com/
Category: Reference
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Tom Geller
Some magazines transition to the Web well, enhancing their print product with online exclusives, clever presentations, and useful cross-references. Then there are those like American Demographics. It¹s not all bad: certainly, it¹s a useful site for those in the Marketing field, the text of the entire print edition appearing alongside Dow Jones¹ companion magazines. Otherwise, the data file ³exclusives² are meager, and the link list includes a mere eight sources. The articles, however, are well-written and will have you singing AD¹s praises.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Elements of Style
URL: http://www.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/strunk/
Category: Reference
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Tom Geller
Similar in aim to Project Gutenberg (http://jug.coo.uiuc.edu/PUG/welcome.html), in which classic texts are digitized, Columbia University¹s Project Bartleby has HTML tags worked into the text, making it easier to read with a Web browser. William Stunk Jr.¹s popular handbook for writers, The Elements of Style, is a perfect example of what the project does. Clear grammar and punctuation make the text engaging; tables, hyperlinks, and a simple design enhance it further.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Internet University
URL: http://www.internetuniv.com/
Category: Reference
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: MCM
Despite the academic-sounding title, enrollees at Internet University can enjoy a pleasing array of thoroughly meaningless diversions (sending surrealistic e-mail pizzas to friends, writing punchlines for goofy cartoons, and more). There are no actual courses at IU, and the 12 "departments" (Knowledge for College, Arts and Entertainment, Travel, Outlet Stores, etc.) are, in essence, a substantial, well-organized index of links, useful to all cravers of knowledge, especially college students. Basically, IU is an information clearinghouse, made more exciting by the possibility of superficial social activity and general silliness. In other words, it's an excellent representation of the modern college experience.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Planet Earth
URL: http://www.nosc.mil/planet_earth/info.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: MCM
Planet Earth, a self-described World Wide Web Virtual Library, is a straightforward, streamlined alternative to flashier commercial Web guide services. Its interface is graphically simple - a floor plan metaphor - and provides easy entry into the basic subject "rooms" ( the Reference Room, Multimedia Room, and Government Room, to name a few). Whether you're looking for a good search engine, a weather report or the address of a university, this overview of web-based resources will help you locate the information you need, without the distraction and delay of commercial sites' bells and whistles (and ads).
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Galaxy
URL: http://galaxy.einet.net/galaxy.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: MCM
Galaxy, another World Wide Web resource index, unfolds from the foremost, general categories through level after level of increasing specificity in an impressive display of deep content. Blast off from the Leisure and Recreation list and eventually wind up at the Judo Information Site, the Pyrotechnics Home Page or Janet's Country-Western Dance Hall Page. This site is list-city, with no graphics and, consequently, not much personality. But you're not dating the darn thing, so who cares? Of course, if you want to feel more connected to Galaxy, they welcome submissions in all categories, via a quick, easy e-mail form.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Electronic Journals
URL: http://www.edoc.com/ejournal/
Category: Reference
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: MCM
Electronic Journals is a sub-section of the massive WWW Virtual Library, offering access to every kind of electronic publication imaginable. From college research journals to underground art e-zines, this is the place to go for periodical readers who just can't stand the ink. You'll be grateful for the intermediate screen that comes between each specific site listing and the site itself. This transition page offers a paragraph describing the site, making it easier to decide whether or not you really want to invest the connection and download time just to browse the Virtual New Age Poetry Review.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 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 there¹s a catch: you have to subscribe in order to follow them.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Xerox/PARC Map Viewer
URL: http://pubweb.parc.xerox.com/map
Category: Reference
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
PARC, in case you didn¹t know, is the Palo Alto Research Center, in the heart of the Silicon Valley. If you want a map of the area (or anyplace worldwide), just go to this site to have one generated as an inline GIF, right there on your browser. Actually, this page doesn¹t allow you to select a locale by name, (whereas the U.S. Census Gazeteer does) so you¹ll have to have a general idea of where Palo Alto is. Aim for San Fransico Bay and head a little south. You¹ll find it. And I think you¹ll be amazed at how well this map server works. On a slow connection the experience might be just a little exasperating, but with faster connections, it¹s fairly unbelievable, even if the maps are a bit crude. (U.S. maps have better detail than other areas).
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

WWW Virtual Library -- Latin American Studies
URL: http://lanic.utexas.edu/las.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
Another far-flung branch of the vast WWW Virtual Library, this one, devoted to everything between the Rio Grande and Cape Horn, is housed at the University of Texas. The site¹s design is plain as oatmeal -- plainer, even -- with information organized along the most basic lines. Data is grouped under two headings: the country index and the subject index. The links are extensive and seemingly authoritative. The emphasis is, of course, on academics, and scholars will find conference announcements here, and a long list of research institutions. Also, like any good virtual library, it has search capabilities built-in (WAIS). Latin American nationals may want to check their country¹s folders for magazine pages and other popular media.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 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 that¹s it, folks.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 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 (out of 18): 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 (out of 18): 15

DINENET MENUS ONLINE
URL: http://www.menusonline.com
Category: Reference
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
Aside from the tiresome Java-generated crawling text on its splash page, this site is pretty cool. Every restaurant in each of eight metropolitan areas (Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington/Baltimore) is invited to submit its menu, two reviews and a photograph. Participating restaurants are not charged for the service, and so several hundred restaurants have already joined in. Now, all this site needs is to collaborate with FedEx to offer a nationwide, high quality food delivery service: 30 minutes cross-country, or it's free. Land to goshen! Wouldn't that be the cat's pajamas?
Overall Rating (out of 18): 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 wouldn¹t 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 (out of 18): 15

The Contractor Network
URL: http://www.contractornet.com/
Category: Reference
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Unknown
Have a question about home repair or renovation? The Contractor Network has a forum for visitors wherein they can submit their questions via e-mail on any aspect of work around the house. No telling how fast the turnaround is, but the Q & A I viewed were simple and straightforward. The Network sells a videotape called ³How to Hire a Contractor² for $9.95 and offers an 800 number for referrals in your area. According to the site, home repair fraud is the second most common crime reported to the U.S. Consumer Affairs Department. If that is in fact the case, your time here could pay off.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

USPS ZIP Code Lookup and Address Information
URL: http://www.usps.gov/ncsc
Category: Reference
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Jose Alvear
Bummed because you're the only person on your block who doesn't know their zip code + 4? Don't fret, the United States Postal Service lets you enter your address (any address) and get the official zip code + 4 right over the Internet. In fact, if you're ever stumped about any facet of addressing mail, this is your place. You can get the complete lowdown on all the correct ways to address your mail and the officially sanctioned state and street abbreviations. Did you know the abbreviation for Village is VLG and the abbreviation for path is PATH? You read it here first.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Statistical Assessment Service
URL: http://www.proxima.com:8080/stats/
Category: Reference
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Jose Alvear
You have a greater chance of getting struck by lightning than getting your e-mail broken into, right? Well, maybe not, says the Statistical Assessment Service. The SAR is a non-profit organization dedicated to uncovering, demystifying, and correcting statistical findings released by the media. Many statistics, they say, are skewed, biased, misinterpreted, or downright false. The Statistical Assessment Service (STATS) analyzes disputes on current statistics that may be in the news today. They work with journalists to prevent 'bad' data from going out to the public. This isn't so much an active site, but one that provides a service to journalists and researchers via e-mail. The few articles here will make you think twice the next time you read an interesting statistic or get caught out in a lightning storm.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 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 (out of 18): 14

PAL Map Collection
URL: http://rowan.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/Map_collection.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Tom Geller
There are 230,000 maps in the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, but don¹t count on finding your hometown here. Housed by the University of Texas at Austin, it¹s among the most extensive such archives in the world; unfortunately, its Web site has only a fraction of the Library¹s total content and the map images are often too hazy to read place names even with files running to 500K. It¹s a valuable resource, nonetheless, with approximately 1,000 maps to its credit.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 14

ClassMate
URL: http://www.classmates.com/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/cmates/cmates.cgi
Category: Reference
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Tom Geller
My high school years sucked; nevertheless, I keep an eye out for old classmates as I approach my 10th anniversary of liberation. And where better to seek them out but on the net? The folks at ClassMate know this, and they¹ve set up a registry to find old comrades. Unfortunately, the system needs to reach critical mass in order to work well, and it hasn¹t yet. When I visited, only nine people from my school had registered, and none from my class. ³Membership² privileges are $15, but registering¹s free. So go on ‹ sign up! Maybe your high school crush has been looking for you.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 14

Office of Population Research
URL: http://opr.princeton.edu/
Category: Reference
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Tom Geller
Every three seconds, somewhere in the world, a woman gives birth. We must find this woman and STOP HER! All right, that¹s an old jokeŠ but it¹s a good one to introduce the study of worldwide birth and death statistics. Princeton University claims to have the oldest population research department in the world, and now they¹ve claimed primacy online as well. And while I don¹t doubt that their site is comprehensive, its content is far too academic for most.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 14

Clearinghouse
URL: http://www.lib.umich.edu/chhome.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Tom Geller
The idea is good: if omnibus search engines like Lycos and WebCrawler sometimes return links to substandard and irrelevant sites ‹ and they often do ‹ why not create a database which includes only Web pages which meet certain standards? That¹s the idea behind the Clearinghouse at the University of Michigan: ostensibly, all of its 1,078 sites have been reviewed for relevance in the past 12 months and either approved or denied entry. In reality, most of the pages I searched had no ratings, the linked sites were of uneven quality, and 1,000-odd sites is far too few to make a useful general directory.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 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 (out of 18): 14

US National Debt Clock
URL: http://www.brillig.com:80/debt_clock/
Category: Reference
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
Five trillion and change, the day I checked. That¹s a lot of beer and pretzels, kids. This simple but effective page from citizen/netizen Ed Hall is a sobering reminder that the country¹s affluence is hinged on some pretty heavy deficit spending. There¹s a lot of debate amongst economists about just how serious the problem is; meanwhile, the gargantuan figure just keeps swelling. The site is packed with relevant links, and Ed does a good job of explaining how he calibrates his debt-o-meter. So,...if you want to get in on the budget debate but aren¹t up on the numbers, come here for a quick and dirty rundown.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 14

Phase of the Moon
URL: http://www.speakeasy.org/~chris/pom/
Category: Reference
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
The simplest of pages, this one from Seattleite, Chris Osburn, gives the current phase of the moon with a few esoteric data, such as what percentage of the moon is illuminated, and how old the moon is (or, rather, how far along it is in the present cycle). That statistic is updated every few seconds. Personally, I¹d rather just have a look outside. It might be nice to expand the possibilities here, for example allowing users to type in a date and find out the phase of the moon then. What d¹ya say, Chris?
Overall Rating (out of 18): 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 (out of 18): 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 ³Hackrbum's View on the End of the World² could not be found. What do you think that means?
Overall Rating (out of 18): 14

Pathway Services
URL: http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aces760.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Jose Alvear
Looking for U.S. government information and don't know where to turn? Pathway Services has everything you need. Billing itself as Federal Depository Library Program and it points people to government information on the Internet. You can browse by topics, or use their search engine. In effect, they break down government bureaucracy for you. You don't have to search for a specific government entity--just look for what you need. After all, who really knows what the Department of the Interior does? MOCAT, another service here, gives you a list of monthly documents that are published by the government. Well, it¹s about time that the government made some things easy for us.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 14

Demography and Population Studies WWW VL
URL: http://coombs.anu.edu.au/ResFacilities/DemographyPage.html
Category: Reference
Issue: 0197
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Jose Alvear
When you need demographic information, come here. There are currently 155 sites listed here with demography information all around the world: official government pages, university studies, organizations interested in demographics, and many other such resources. You can also search 'Irena - The Web Connections Finder' in case you need some more specific information. A drab, gray site, it nevertheless gets the job done. There is a mountain of information here. Just wait until you actually need this site and you will see how good it is.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 14

How far is it?
URL: http://www.indo.com/distance/
Category: Reference
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Jose Alvear
This is a quickie, one-trick site. Basically, this site will give you the distance as the crow flies between two points anywhere on the globe and spits back the distance in miles, kilometers and nautical miles. You can enter the information as a zip code, city/state, latitude/longitude, or city/country. Once your search is done, you get the longitude and latitude, population, and elevation for each location. Neat as this sounds, there are other sites out there doing much the same, only better. See MapQuest, below, for an example.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 13

The Alternative Dictionaries
URL: http://www.notam.uio.no/~hcholm/altlang/
Category: Reference
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Jose Alvear
The Alternative Dictionaries is not so much a dictionary as a place to learn how to curse in foreign languages. ³Alternative² in this case boils down to curses, slurs, epithets, and scatological references. The TAD is an "internet collaborative project" meaning surfers create it by adding new entries themselves and that there is no real authority to check for accuracy. No search functions at the site, just choose your language and scroll down alphabetically through the colorful vocabulary. When I visited, you couldn't add words as it was going through a re-design, and things hadn¹t been updated for a while.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 13

SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH INDEX
URL: http://www.infobases.com/ssdi/query01.htm
Category: Reference
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
A searchable database of people who had Social Security benefits when they died, which even if you possess and provide all the information asked for, does not work. Or, if it does work, the instructions are so abstruse that mistakes are inevitable. No explanation is provided for interpreting the cryptic chart generated by a query. The chart returned for my query featured 61 numerals broken into 17 groups connected with intersecting lines. Whatever could this mean? Instructions then said, "Click results map to view hits," but doing so only returned the message, "There were 0 results for this operation." Grrrrr.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 12

Currency Converter
URL: http://www.olsen.ch/cgi-bin/exmenu
Category: Reference
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Tom Geller
It¹s no surprise that this site is run by a company in Zurich, Switzerland: that city is famous ¹round the globe for banking. And what¹s more important for international bankers than currency exchange? Nothin¹, that¹s what. The folks at Olsen and Associates have done a bang-up job with this form-based currency converter: it gives the exchange rate for 100 currencies and precious metals as far back as 1990. However, it only does one conversion at a time: to compare many currencies at a glance, visit The GUN/Koalas Currency Converter instead at http://bin.gun.com/cgi-bin/gun/currency.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 10

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 (out of 18): 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 (out of 18): 7

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 (out of 18): 6

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. Don¹t 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 (out of 18): 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 (out of 18): 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 they¹ve created the best widget in the world should check out this site before hitting the marketplace. Find out what¹s 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. There¹s no reason to be a mad scientist when one can be a happy inventor.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 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 Quayle¹s jumbled jargon covering topics such as history, the environment, family values, economics, geography, science, women¹s issues, and more. The tireless list will keep you laughing for hours. Surf until your funny bone snaps, and always remember Dan¹s wise advice: ³If we do not succeed, then we run the risk of failure.²
Overall Rating (out of 18): 5

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 do¹s and don'ts of writing. Visit this site if you¹re stuck on writing an art critique for class and need some impressive words. Otherwise, dip your paintbrush elsewhere.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 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, you¹ll 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 (out of 18): 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. Leaders¹ 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 (out of 18): 4

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 can¹t 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 (out of 18): 3