Neat Net Tricks Issue #93
January 1, 2001
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IN THIS ISSUE

01.  ScreenHunter
02.  Face Generator
03.  The spoken word
04.  CueCat
05.  Print Preview
06.  The Not-So-Nifty
07.  URL Discombobulator
08.  RealPlayer 8 Plus
09.  Kima
10.  Voyeur Search
11.  AOL Links
12.  Back up email
13.  HEREontheWEB Is There On The Air

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01.  SCREENHUNTER.  ScreenHunter can capture any rectangular area of
the screen, windows and menus, and the desktop. Captured images can be 
saved with an automatically generated file name, so you don't have to 
stop each time you capture and you can capture as many as you like. The
images also can be copied to other programs and saved either in Bitmap 
or JPEG format. It's free at 
http://wisdom-soft.com/products/screenhunter.htm .

02.  FACE GENERATOR.  Right now it's just for fun, but the Face 
Generator shows definite potential for optic stores, medical services,
legal and police applications, hair dressers, etc.  Design your face at
http://www.facegenerator.com but be aware that it works only on MSIE 
4.0+.

03.  THE SPOKEN WORD.  Neat Net Tricks has featured several dictionary
sites, all good ones.  The American Heritage Dictionary at
http://www.bartleby.com/61/ not only offers 90,000 entries and 900 
full-page color illustrations, but get this:  It has 70,000 audio
pronunciations so you can find the definition, click the speaker icon,
and hear how it's really supposed to be spoken.  Unfortunately, this
one really doesn't have a large enough database to be extremely useful.

04.  CUECAT.  A few issues ago, CueCat was reviewed in Neat Net Tricks
as a promising bit of technology.  That's the little device that's
being offered free by Radio Shack and by some magazine publishers, and
it's supposed to scan codes in printed publications and point your
browser in that direction.  It also reads product codes, and some things
it does too well.  There have been reports that CueCat sends user ID
info back to its server, Digital:Convergence, a real issue if you're 
concerned with privacy.  Allegedly the devices can be reengineered to 
disable that capability, and the company has moved to prevent this.  
I wish I could retract the original review.  Alas, hindsight is 20-20, 
but if these reports are accurate, I think CueCat should be relegated 
to the litter box.

05.  PRINT PREVIEW.  If you've tried to print a Web page, you may be in
for a disappointment that some sites won't print as you see them on your
screen.  Netscape Communicator provides a Print Preview option so you'll
be able to decide whether it's worth the paper and ink.  Click on File|
Print Preview for the screen with background images removed.  Along with
the option to print, there is also a zoom option, an option to view 
multiple pages on the same screen, and other options.  You can also find
this feature on the Microsoft Internet Explorer beginning with version 
5.5.

06.  THE NOT-SO-NIFTY.  Deserving special recognition are those who
must think our elevator doesn't travel all the way to the top.  For
example:

AOL obviously caters to a group of insomniacs!  The largest on-line
service now offers 700 free introductory hours to new customers but 
they must use those 700 hours in 30 days.  Hmmmmmm ... let's see, with 
only 720 total hours in 30 days, they can get in 20 hours of sleep.

And how about those marketers (spammers?) who entice you to click on
their email messages with bogus subject lines?  An online gambling
casino likes to use "Congratulations, you've won."  Others use lots of
exclamation marks and "Urgent!" "Important!" and "Read this!"  And one
of my favorites, "This is the information you asked for.", is always a
tip-off that it isn't and I never did.  It doesn't take us long to 
identify this ploy and set our email filters to delete the spam
without reading it, or simply ignore it and delete it.

You may have even better examples of the Not-So-Nifty; if so, please
let's hear from you.  Email jteems@neatnettricks.com .

07.  URL DISCOMBOBULATOR.  The updated version of Karen Kenworthy's URL
Discombobulator can be downloaded at 
http://www.winmag.com/columns/powertools/ptlookup.htm.  In Karen's own
words, this application will reveal the IP address of any computer on 
the Internet by entering the domain name such as Microsoft.com.  It can
also show several ways each URL might be represented, a useful tool if
you're attempting to track spam.

08.  REALPLAYER PLUS 8.  I've used RealPlayer through several versions
and have written a lot about this streaming media application.  The 
folks at http://www.real.com asked me to try RealPlayer Plus 8 and, 
even to my untrained ears and nearly-antiquated 56k modem, there seems 
to be a "real" (no pun intended) improvement in sound quality and 
uninterrupted streaming from a new radio tuner with 2,500 live radio 
stations.  Also, customized channels from more than 100 media broadcast
partners, 3D stereo effects, new search techniques, visualization 
settings such as rotation and zoom, and at least two dozen new and 
improved features suggest checking this one out.

09.  KIMA.  Nothing complicated about this one, Kima is a wireless
audio 900 MHz system that transmits high-quality sound up to 1,000 
feet.  You simply plug in the base system to a sound source such as
a PC, stereo, TV, etc., then place the remote system near a stereo or
radio.  It took me about 30 seconds to set up, and I was amazed at the
quality of sound this little unit transmitted.  Kima is compatible
with any computer that has a sound card, or for that matter any audio
device.  I was impressed with the package but somewhat disappointed
with their Web site at http://www.akoo.com .  The site allows Kima
users to construct play lists of favorite music, radio, TV, and other
sources, but I found many of the links are outdated or inactive.  Akoo
tells me that vendors of radio streams sometimes have technical
complications that cause disruptions, and, since this infrastructure is
not part of the Akoo configuration, Akoo has no control over the 
situation.

Fortunately, Kima has a lot to offer without Akoo's playlist.  For 
example, with the RealPlayer Plus 8 (reviewed above) and Kima connected
to your PC, you'll have your house wired for sound without the wires. 

10.  VOYEUR SEARCH.  At http://www.excite.com/search/voyeur/ you can
peek in on what topics are being searched on the Excite search engine.
The list is refreshed every 30 seconds and if you have a dull moment or
two and absolutely no idea where to go, you can go where others are
going.

11.  AOL LINKS.  If you've corresponded with folks on AOL, you know
that hypertext links embedded in email aren't simply "clickable" as
they are in email outside that service.  Brian Alt publishes a daily
ezine and handles that specific subject quite well at
http://Ezine-Tips.com/articles/format/20001019.shtml .

12.  BACK UP EMAIL.  If you use Netscape for your email and those 
files become corrupted, you will likely lose every message you wanted
to save.  You can avoid this dilemma by making regular back ups of the
mail folder.  You will probably need to create the backup on your hard
drive because it has a tendency to grow to several hundred megabytes,
too large to store on a floppy or zip.  You'll find the folder at
program files\netscape\users\your name\mail .

13.  HEREontheWEB IS THERE ON THE AIR.  NNT has featured Joe West's
HEREontheWEB several times.  Now Joe broadcasts his HEREontheWEB Radio
from San Francisco 5 times a day.  It's great tekkie news, and you 
don't need a big antenna to hear his broadcast on the Web, via 
RealPlay.  Get there through his site at http://hereontheweb.com .

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Copyright 2001 by Jack Teems.  All rights reserved.
