From crispen@CAMPUS.MCI.NET Fri Mar 14 01:29:14 1997
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 20:05:49 -0800
From: Patrick Douglas Crispen
Reply-To: TOURBUS-Request@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
To: TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
Subject: TOURBUS -- 13 MARCH 1997 -- OLYMPIC PARK / PHONESPELL / VOYEUR
/~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~~/~~~|~\
| "Why | Surf When / You Can | Ride The | Bus?" / | \
|__________|__________/__________|__________|___________/ | \
/ /______|----\
| Visit the TOURBUS website to see the Archives, |//////| |
| FAQ, and Subscription Information! |//////| |
| http://www.TOURBUS.com |//////| |
| |//////| |
~~~/~~~\~~/~~~\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/~~~\~~~~
\___/ \___/ T h e I n t e r n e t T o u r B u s \___/
TODAY'S STOP: OLYMPIC PARK / PHONESPELL / VOYEUR
TODAY'S ADDRESSES: http://www.fbi.gov/centbom/centph.htm
http://www.fbi.gov/centbom/centstat.htm
http://www.best.com/~jgro/phoneSpell.shtml
http://voyeur.mckinley.com/voyeur.cgi
One of my roommates recently discovered America Online (AOL).
Unfortunately, he also discovered that AOL's dial-up problems even affect
towns as small as Tuscaloosa, Alabama. So, he decided to connect to AOL
through their long-distance access numbers in Birmingham and Huntsville,
Alabama.
The phone bill arrived yesterday. The total? $682.92.
Kids, don't try this at home. No, really.
Actually, my roommate has a couple thousand dollars in savings (must be
nice!), so things aren't all that bleak (well, they aren't all that bleak
for *me*). Actually, since I get 5 frequent flyer miles for every dollar I
spend in long distance, I think I may have to give my roommate the AOL
access number in Tibet! :)
Anyway, let's get today's tour under way. As you know by now, TOURBUS is
advertiser-supported. This helps us keep these posts free, and it also
gives you the opportunity to receive some cool deals such as ...
+----------------------------- BE COOL ------------------------------+
Jump start your Web pages with a copy of the best-selling
book "Creating Cool HTML 3.2 Web Pages" by guru Dave Taylor.
For info and FREE online HTML lessons, visit
+-----------( http://www.intuitive.com/taylor/cool-web )-------------*
*--------------------------- MASS MUSIC -----------------------------*
More Music For Your Money! Over 185,000 Titles Just A Click Away.
FREE Weekly Music Zine - Buy 7 Get 1 FREE Everyday - Treasure Hunt!
TOURBUS Rider Discount code: SAVENOW! use it and save 5%
*------------------( http://www.Mass-Music.com )-------------------*
Since I have spent the past couple of TOURBUS posts dealing with "serious"
topics such as urban legends and virus hoaxes, I decided that today I'd
drive our little bus of Internet happiness to some FUN places. Before I do
that, though, there is *one* serious stop that I really want to make.
THE OLYMPIC PARK BOMBING INVESTIGATION
--------------------------------------
The United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation has placed on their Web
page the photos of eight people, and a sketch of a ninth person, that the
FBI is trying to locate. These people may have important information to
provide concerning events that took place around the site of the fatal
bombing at the Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta last July.
The pictures can be found on the Web at
http://www.fbi.gov/centbom/centph.htm
The FBI is offering a $500,000 reward for information leading to the arrest
and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the Centennial
Olympic Park bombing. Additional information on the FBI's continuing
investigation can be found at
http://www.fbi.gov/centbom/centstat.htm
Even if you don't know *anything* about the bombing, you still should take
a few seconds out of your schedule to look at these photos. Hopefully, if
enough people see these pictures, the FBI will find the lead that they are
looking for.
Now for the fun stuff ...
SORRY ... CAN YOU SPELL THAT PHONE NUMBER AGAIN?
-------------------------------------------------
In light of my recent telephone bill, I thought that this next stop was
rather appropriate. Your fearless bus driver has always wanted to have a
telephone number that actually spells something. You know, something like
555-BAMA or 555-MY-ROOMMATE-IS-A-TOTAL-WEENIE.
Well, if you are interested in finding out what your current telephone
number spells, you might want to check out the PhoneSpell homepage at
http://www.best.com/~jgro/phoneSpell.shtml
(and, no, "shtml" is not a typo). PhoneSpell works three ways:
1. If you enter a 7 digit telephone number, PhoneSpell will
search its dictionary and show you what words and phrases your
telephone number spells.
2. If you pick a new phone number by typing in an available
exchange (first 3 digits), PhoneSpell will show you a list of
one-word numbers that you can choose from.
3. If you type in a word, PhoneSpell will tell you the
corresponding phone number.
I especially like this last option -- now all I have to do is convince the
phone company to change my phone number to 778-4775 ("squirrl"). :)
SEARCH VOYEUR
-------------
Our next stop was recommended by long-time TOURBUS rider Charles Pearson.
If you have spent any amount of time on the Web, you have no doubt used a
search engine like Alta Vista or Lycos. You type in a keyword, and the
search engine searches for all of the pages that match your keyword.
Have you stopped to wonder what keywords everyone else is searching for?
The Search Voyeur is continuously-updated list of 20 randomly selected
real-time keywords that users are searching for through Magellan, one of
the Net's most popular search engines. Personally, I found this page to be
hysterical, but I have to warn you that some of the keywords that are
displayed on this page may not be appropriate for everyone. As Charles
notes
[S]earches with particularly offensive language are not included,
but many sexually-related keywords do appear.
If you want to see the Search Voyeur page, just point your Web browser to
http://voyeur.mckinley.com/voyeur.cgi
The cool thing about this page is that, if you are running Netscape
Navigator 2 or later, the page automatically refreshes every 20 seconds!
That way you can see bunches of new keywords like (I swear I am not making
this up) "Biscuit Hockey Pants" and "Shakespear" (hey, my roommate is doing
some lit homework!).
Actually, I am still chuckling about the "Shakespear" keyword that someone
was using. I keep picturing a vibrating fruit. :)
And, on that note, I'll bring this week's tour to an end. Have a safe and
happy weekend, and watch out for them shakespears!
TODAY'S ADDRESSES: http://www.fbi.gov/centbom/centph.htm
http://www.fbi.gov/centbom/centstat.htm
http://www.best.com/~jgro/phoneSpell.shtml
http://voyeur.mckinley.com/voyeur.cgi
--------------------------------
TODAY'S SOUTHERN WORD OF THE DAY
--------------------------------
MAYO (noun). What the United States Postal "Service" carries (other
than semi-automatic assault weapons).
Usage: "Would you go out an' check the mayo?"
(Special thanks goes to Tina Mader for today's word)
YOU CAN FIND ALL OF THE OLD SOUTHERN WORDS OF THE DAY ON THE SOUTHERN WORD
HOMEPAGE AT http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~crispen/word.html
======================================================================
Join : Send SUBSCRIBE TOURBUS Your Name to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
Leave : Send SIGNOFF TOURBUS to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
Archives: On the Web at http://www.TOURBUS.com
Advertising: Send e-mail to BobRankin@MHV.net for details.
=--------------------------------------------------------------------=
For info on my new book "Atlas for the Information Superhighway"
send an e-mail letter to LISTSERV@UA1VM.UA.EDU that says
GET ATLAS INFO F=MAIL in the body of your e-mail letter
======================================================================
TOURBUS - (c) Copyright 1997, Patrick Crispen and Bob Rankin
All rights reserved. Redistribution is allowed only with permission.
Send this copy to 3 friends and tell them to get on the Bus!
(\__/) .~ ~. ))
/O O ./ .' Patrick Douglas Crispen
{O__, \ { The University of Alabama
/ . . ) \ crispen@campus.mci.net
|-| '-' \ } http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~crispen/
.( _( )_.'
'---.~_ _ _& Warning: squirrels.
