Neat Net Tricks Issue # 108
August 15, 2001

http://www.NeatNetTricks.com
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IN THIS ISSUE:

01.  Where's George?
02.  Email Directory
03.  SaveThis
04.  Selective printing
05.  Vivisimo
06.  Eye of the Storm/The Fourth Day
07.  Surname distribution
08.  MailShell
09.  All of the shortcuts
10.  Message Vault
11.  ZIP Code distance
12.  Modified files aid in search
13.  Other 'zines

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01.  WHERE'S GEORGE? is The Great American Dollar Bill Locator.
Actually, you can enter the serial number of any denomination 
in your possession from $1 to $100.  Then, you can see where it 
goes next provided, of course, that someone else logs it in.  
You can opt to be notified by email too, if it is important in 
your life to know where your money goes.  Where's George is at 
http://www.wheresgeorge.com ,and our Canadian friends aren't 
excluded either. For you, there's http://www.whereswilly.com .

02.  EMAIL DIRECTORY.  We Internet users still have no reliable 
way of determining someone's email address (other than perhaps 
asking him or her). But the research is made a little easier 
with Email-Directory.Com where there are more than 200 email 
directories worldwide, neatly categorized by country, interest, 
profession, and academic affiliation.  It's worth a try at 
http://www.email-directory.com next time you're trying to hunt 
down an address.

03.  SAVETHIS.  A useful organization device is SaveThis at 
http://www.savethis.com .  After a free registration, you can 
drag a "SaveThis" link to your browser toolbar.  Then a click 
on that link will save links from any computer or Web-enabled 
wireless device to your private account.  You can share single 
links, an entire folder of links, or group folders with others, 
import browser bookmarks/favorites, create group folders, 
import email addresses and address books, and so on, without 
cluttering your hard drive or email inbox.  Similarly, you can 
place an "Email This" button to save and share pages from any 
Web site visited.

04.  SELECTIVE PRINTING.  Sometimes we want to print a selected 
passage from a Web page, and that's easy with MS Internet 
Explorer.  Just highlight the desired text, use CTRL + P, and 
in the Print window, click on Selection from the Print Range 
selection, then OK.  The same capability doesn't exist with 
Netscape Communcicator where the Selection option is greyed out 
in the Print window.

05.  VIVISIMO.  Another useful search engine to add to your 
arsenal is Vivisimo at http://www.vivisimo.com .  You can, as 
with others, search the entire Web or narrow your search to one 
of several categories.  Vivisimo calls on some 9 major search 
engines for data, and the search layout and the display can be 
customized to your liking.  But the best feature may be the 
organization of results into descriptive folders that seem to 
more readily provide the information you're looking for.

06.  EYE OF THE STORM/THE FOURTH DAY. All was quiet when I 
first glimpsed the impressive 3-D imagery of Earth in Eye of 
the Storm.  But I know with the hurricane season things should 
come to life, as this package, subtitled "Storm Tracking for 
the 21st Century", automatically updates storm data every 15 
minutes and tracks tropical storms and depressions and marine 
advisories as well.  Even if you don't reside where Mother 
Nature can be her meanest, you'll still be dazzled at Eye of 
the Storm's graphics and features.  Details are at 
http://starstonesoftware.com/eots/eots.htm . And a companion 
program is The Fourth Day, an astronomical clock and almanac, 
customizible from 23,000 database entries or your own hometown 
and updated by the US Naval Observatory's Master Time Server.

07.  SURNAME DISTRIBUTION.  If you're into genealogy, this one 
will interest you.  Even if not, it's intriguing to see who 
else in the U.S. shares your surname.  U.S. Surname 
Distribution at http://hamrick.com/names/ searches from a 
database of 50,000 names and will show you the states where 
others live who share your name.  With a click to display all 
dates, you can view how your kin may have migrated across the 
country from census data all the way back to 1850.

08.  MAILSHELL.  Create an unlimited number of unique email 
addresses and Mailshell at http://www.mailshell.com will 
forward your mail to you, protecting your true identity from 
spammers.  While you're at it, they will be glad to place your 
anonymous subscription with lots of ezines and make sure that 
you get untold numbers of offers that you probably see everyday 
in spam.  You'll likely want to decline that part of 
their service.

09.  ALL OF THE SHORTCUTS, or so it seems, for Windows 98 are at
http://www.microsoft.com/TechNet/win98/Reskit/Part7/wrkappg.asp .
You will no doubt want to print this, and, in order to save 
time with your keyboard and mouse, look up the applicable 
shortcut.  Of course, that may take longer than just doing it 
the usual way.

10.  MESSAGE VAULT.  This utility frees up a lot of space on 
your hard drive by compressing and archiving your email 
messages.  It works on Win 98/2K and most email programs 
including those using html.  Message Vault allows you to store 
up to 65,536 messages in a "vault" (database) with secure 
encryption to deter prying eyes.  Handy tools include sorting, 
customized and predefined displays, searches, keywords, export, 
and so on. Check it out at http://www.comaxis.com/mv.htm .

11.  ZIP CODE DISTANCE.  The Web has lots of ZIP Code lookups, 
but the one at http://www.link-usa.com/zipcode/ is neat in that 
it provides the distance between two ZIP codes.  Also, it has 
the usual ZIP code lookup and will display all ZIP codes within 
a specified radius of a ZIP code.

12.  MODIFIED FILES AID IN SEARCH.  Someone inquired on the NNT 
Bulletin Board how she could find a backup file that may store 
certain data for a program in her system.  An astute response 
was to simply add something to the program, and then search for 
all files modified on that day, thus narrowing the search.  To 
do this, select your hard drive from the Explorer window and 
right click to Find.  Click the Date tab in the Find window for 
Win 98 or the "Date modified" tab in Win 95.  Select "Find all 
files" and keep "Modified" as the option, then click on "during 
the previous" and leave "1 day" as the default.

13.  OTHER 'ZINES.  If you subscribed to NNT through the Web 
site, you probably saw a brief note about four other ezines we 
recommend.  If your subscription was via email, you missed that 
note.  These are all free and worth checking out, The Naked PC 
at http://www.thenakedpc.com/ is loaded with useful PC secrets 
and tips.  The Langa Letter at http://www.langa.com is another 
newsletter that helps to make the most of your hardware, 
software, and time on line.  Poor Richard's Website News at 
http://www.topfloor.com/pr/newsltr/ helps you with setting up 
and maintaining your Web site.  And last, but certainly not 
least, Tourbus at http://www.tourbus.com provides useful sites 
on the Net and info on search engines, spam, viruses, cookies, 
urban legends, and more.

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If you have a Web site and would like to spread the word about 
NNT, please consider placing one of the icons at 
http://www.NeatNetTricks.com/LoveNNT on your site.  Email when 
you do, to jteems@neatnettricks.com , indicating the URL where 
the icon is displayed.  In appreciation, we'll enter your name 
in our random software drawing and include your link on 
the NNT site.

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NNT makes no endorsement or warranty, expressed or implied, 
with regard to featured products or services.  Results may 
vary based on operating systems and other variables beyond 
our control.

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Copyright 2001 by Jack Teems.  All rights reserved. Neat Net 
Tricks is registered with the U.S. Library of Congress 
ISSN: 1533-4619. 
