Good day to you all. Lets jump right in with a couple of fun places this week:

Have you ever played with a program called Macromedia Flash? It's pretty graphic heavy with a fairly serious learning curve if you're not already in the design or computer mode, but widely accepted among web designers. The following designs were created, according to the source who sent this, with Flash. Go to http://www.esu.lt/andrius/10/go.htm and watch this hungry little fellow. I'll bet you'll be calling the family into the room. Another offering is at http://www.unc.edu/%7Erhillman/flash/fight.swf.

Think you know everything there is to know about Windows? I rarely have another day in front of the screen that I don't learn something new myself, and I found a site this week that helps to tweak or just generally teach more. Go to Annoyances (http://www.annoyances.org/). (I believe the title refers to the author's opinion of Microsoft) The site is intuitive; for instance it told me what operating system I was using, and opened directly to the Windows XP page, however, they have information and articles regarding all the Microsoft versions. Having said this, I would caution all those who are not fairly computer savvy. For instance, I have a friend who used to love to tweak Windows and downloaded all kinds of programs to do it as well as messing with the various system files that Windows always warns you about changing and guess what? His system would often run badly, or not at all. The only similar situation I can imagine would be like taking prescription medicines without asking the doctor how these might work together. It pays to learn all you can BEFORE you start changing settings, make backups of any files that might be affected (sys, ini, etc.) AND keep a log, in notepad or something simple like that, of any changes you make, so that, when something doesn't work well, you can backtrack and, hopefully, restore your settings to the ones that worked well before. Just remember that sometimes, Newer/Better is not what it's cracked up to be.

One of my readers this week asked if some fun thing will really pop up and dance across their screen if they simply forward some e-mail to 10, 20, 40, 80 people, as promised in the e-mail? I did, as I recall, try a couple of those many years ago, when everything on the net was 'new', to me at least, and I don't recall anything ever happening, good or otherwise. I take that back, I did receive several requests that I stop sending out the offending 'chain mail' to those persons again. Since there are no such things, as far as I'm aware, as 'e-mail trackers' (as some of these letters mention) I don't see how any such re-mailing will cause anything to happen, UNLESS the original has dropped some sort of UNWANTED program file on my system that could monitor what I did. As Norton or McAfee or whatever viral checker you use should pick up and dispose of any odd attached file contained within an e-mail that wanted to auto-run, I doubt the ability of most of those mailout’s claims. HOWEVER, believe it or not, I have been wrong before, so, I will ask our readers to tell us of any occurrences they have had.

On a side note, I don’t mean to be so jaded, but, most of these little darlings have something in the subject line like 'Wow, it really works', as well, often enough, as some sort of threat toward the end that my life will never really be fulfilling, or worse, that some terrible occurrence might happen should I choose to have something better to do than annoy my friends and neighbors with this cute little sentiment. You know, I truly do not believe that anything I receive that was meant for mass consumption, no matter how well intended, or 'cute' or 'nice' is likely to mean much in my life, while something written to me by someone who wanted to take the time to actually think and write about something that means something to themselves and me, will. And, I'll bet, those sentiments may very well affect me or my life just for that reason, if only momentarily, far more than a million e-mails promising me anything.

Having said that, I do, very much, appreciate the time you folks have taken to let me know of interesting sites or questions and opinions you may have. I believe that definitely falls in the later category and I thank you. In planning a future article, I plan to address some other of these mass e-mails, and look forward to including your input regarding what works, or doesn't. In the meantime, check out Gigglebytes, a column by Lincoln Spector, at http://www.computeruser.com/articles/2102,3,7,1,0201,02.html. I think he puts it succinctly.

"Tired of practicing your blank stares for when someone says they need a TCP/IP-based LAN set up and a USB-to-SCSI adapter ASAP?" Sure you are. "Do you wish you could throw around acronyms with that same casual attitude" that make you so annoyed? Here's your chance. Go to AIEEE or Acronym Interaction, Expansion and Extrapolation Engine (http://www.brunching.com/toys/toy-acronymer.html). Here, you may enter any combination of letters you like (from 2 to 6, like your name, or company you work for, what the dog did on the rug, etc) and they'll "expand them into a handy, technical-sounding, completely made-up phrase that borders on the plausible." I'm quoting here, as I really don't think I can improve on their descriptions. It really is a lot of fun. I recall a job I had years ago where my boss and I would conjure up $20 dollar, multi-syllabic, largely useless terms to describe a product we were selling, mostly to see the reactions of ourselves (could we keep a straight face, etc.) rather than to wow some prospective customer.

By the way, I'm informed, by my e-mail, that the Annual Parker's Crossroads Battleground Chili Cook-Off is coming up Saturday, June 8th, 2002, and you can find out more information at http://www.parkerscrossroads.com/ (about halfway down the page).

Also, on a local note, do you have a site you'd like to see mentioned here? Send it over. I've been considering lately that while several places in the Henderson County area list sites on their web pages, I haven't really found a full list of links of business' or other pages. I had considered making just such a page on our web page at http://surf.to/nethotspots. A sort of 'phone book' of local sites. I realize there are so many now, that it might not be completely plausible, however, I know it won't happen without everyone's support. If this sounds like it might be useful to you, let me know at [email protected].

Today's Thought: The surest way to remain a winner is to win once, and then not play any more. And I bet they recite that in Tunica daily.

Today's Joke: One day a man was walking in the woods when he got lost. For two days he roamed around trying to find a way out. He had not eaten anything during this period and was famished. Over on a rock ledge he spotted a bald eagle, killed it, and started to eat it. Surprisingly, a couple of park rangers happen to find him at that moment, and arrested him for killing an endangered species. At court, he plead innocent to the charges against him claiming that if he didn't eat the bald eagle he would have died from starvation. The judge ruled in his favor. In the judge's closing statement he asked the man, "I would like you to tell me something before I let you go. I have never eaten a bald eagle, nor ever plan on it. What did it taste like?" The man answered, "Well, it tasted like a cross between a whooping crane and a spotted owl!"

On a side note, the site is up and running, and God willing and the creeks don't rise, I'll have this week's offering in place before the sun goes down. Hope you have a great week, take care.