Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2000 22:01:06 -0500
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Sender: The Internet TourBus - A virtual tour of cyberspace
Comments: Resent-From: crispen@netsquirrel.com
Comments: Originally-From: Patrick Douglas Crispen
From: Patrick Douglas Crispen
Subject: TOURBUS -- 23 APRIL 00 -- WEBWASHER / MICROSOFT MANUALS
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TOURBUS Volume 5, Number 85 -- 23 April 2000
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\___/ \___/ T h e I n t e r n e t T o u r B u s \___/
FIVE YEARS of Searchable Archives at http://www.TOURBUS.com !!
TODAY'S TOURBUS STOP(S):
WebWasher / Microsoft Files
TODAY'S TOURBUS ADDRESS(ES):
http://www.webwasher.de/en/software/wwash/download.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/docs/default.htm
Howdy, y'all, and greetings from the slightly soggy city of
Tuscaloosa, Alabama! :)
I want to thank the folks at the Georgia Educational Technology
Conference (GaETC) for inviting me to speak at their conference in
Macon last week. I know that I have said this before, but GaETC is
consistently the best run and most friendly conference I know of, and
I am extremely excited about the possibility of speaking at next
year's conference in Savannah.
If you weren't able to make it to Macon this year but would still like
to see my presentations, point your Web browser to
http://netsquirrel.com/classroom/index.html .
This page contains links to most of the PowerPoint files and handouts
I used at GaETC. Am I a nice guy or what?! :)
Today's TOURBUS post comes to us from our sister list, TOURBUS Plus
(check out http://www.tourbus.com/plus.htm for more information).
And, as we all know by now, TOURBUS is made possible by the kind
support of our sponsors. I thank the folks at "Poor Joe's Cash Cow
Sweepstakes," "TravelInformation.com," and "Candlemart" for making
today's post possible. As always, please visit our wonderful sponsors
and thank them for keeping the bus rolling!
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On with the show ...
---------
WebWasher
---------
The three things that annoy me the most are banner ads, javascript
pop-up windows, and Yoko Ono. I don't think I can do much about Yoko,
but I think I have found a way to deal with the first two: WebWasher.
You've probably already heard of WebWasher. Me, well, I'm an old coot
and I am just getting around to using it. Originally developed by
German electronics giant Siemens, WebWasher is a free filter program
for both the PC and Mac versions of Netscape Navigator and Microsoft
Internet Explorer. Once you install WebWasher on your computer, the
program automatically blocks unwanted Web content like banner ads and
pop-up windows. Instead of the ads, all you see is white space -- the
ads aren't even downloaded! :)
Why would anyone want to block out banner ads? Well, some banner ads
are offensive to children (I did a Yahoo search for "Patrick Crispen"
while I was at a local elementary school, and a banner ad for Playboy
appeared. Granted, it was funny ... just not appropriate.) Also,
cutting out banner ads and pop-up windows speeds up your Web surfing
(one less thing to download). Finally -- and correct me if I am wrong
-- I think blocking banner ads also solves the DoubleClick "tracking
cookie" problem we talked about a couple of months ago. Aren't
DoubleClick's cookies served with their ads? Block the ads, and I
think you also block DoubleClick's cookies (but I could be wrong).
What is most amazing is that WebWasher is free for non-commercial
(home) users. You heard right, folks: IT'S FREE! To download it,
point your Web browser to
.
Once you download WebWasher to your hard drive (the file less than 1
Mb in size, so it should download pretty quickly). double-click on the
installation file to install the program, and then follow the on-
screen instructions to configure both WebWasher and your browser.
This sounds complicated, but it is actually pretty easy. :)
That's it! You are now free to surf the Web relatively ad-free. And
unlike a lot of other ad filtering programs, WebWasher doesn't change
the appearance of most popular Web sites. In fact, some sites -- like
Intellicast -- look significantly better without the ads!
Cool, huh? Now if only I could find a YokoWasher program, my life
would be complete. :)
-----------------
Microsoft Manuals
-----------------
It is not too often that I am proud of Microsoft, but this is an
exception. Many people around the world have vision problems and are
unable to read regular, printed materials. To help these people,
Microsoft has created a page at
http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/docs/default.htm
that provides plain text, downloadable versions of most of the manuals
that ship with Microsoft's products. Visually impaired people can
download these text files and enlarge the print or have the text read
to them with a text-to-speech reader. The files are not perfect --
many include formatting tags like
here and there -- but they are
better than nothing.
Why do I mention this here? Well,
1. If you are visually impaired, Microsoft's "Accesible
Documentation" page is a godsend.
2. If you have misplaced any of the manuals that came with your
version of Windows, Office, or FrontPage, you can read all of
Microsoft manuals here (sans images) for free!
Go Microsoft! :)
That's it for today's post. Have a safe and happy week, and we'll
talk again in a few days!
TODAY'S TOURBUS STOP(S):
WebWasher / Microsoft Files
TODAY'S TOURBUS ADDRESS(ES):
http://www.webwasher.de/en/software/wwash/download.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/docs/default.htm
---------------------------------
TODAY'S SOUTHERN WORD OF THE WEEK
---------------------------------
Your fearless bus driver -- with the help of Wolfe Kincaid of the
world-famous "Lee and Wolfe" radio show -- has been completely
redesigning the Southern Word archive at NetSquirrel.com. The new
archive should be ready this week. In the meantime, here is a classic
Southern Word from a few weeks ago:
SOH-WUR (adjective). Painfully sensitive.
Usage: "Mercy, my muscles are soh-wur"
[Special thanks go to Becky Florence for today's word]
You can find all of the old Southern Words of the day at
http://netsquirrel.com/crispen/word.html
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