I am in the process of breaking my links pages up into several different categories which I hope to expand upon given time and my (very
limited) energy. But, for the sake of record, below are some links I think everyone in the English-speaking world
should use on a regular basis.
Dictionary.com. I use this site almost every single day. In fact,
when writing this page, I looked up a word to make sure I really knew what it meant, and saved myself the humiliation of
being incorrect! Honestly, I love Dictionary.com! There's a thesaurus and
everything! Hooray for dictionaries! I love them!
The ZIP Plus 4 Look-up. If you live in the USA, you need to learn to deal with the fact that a 5 digit zip code just
doesn't do the trick for mail any more! This handy tool from the US Postal Service will generate the correct Zip plus 4
for any address within the US.
Bobby Worldwide is tool which allows web page authors to
modify their web pages so that users with disabilities can access and use their pages with ease. Few folks know that
accessibility is a huge issue for disabled users of the Internet. The reading tools used by blind people are cumbersome
at best, and sites which rely solely on gifs and other pictures for navigation severely handicap blind internet surfers.
Bobby points out accessibility issues and suggests changes to
web pages with accessibility issues for disabled users. I run my pages through it, and, though not perfect, they
generally meet at least the bare minimum for accessibility.
The Urban Legends Reference Pages at www.snopes.com
are a must-read for anyone who is gullible or for anybody who doesn't yet know that “virus alerts” sent to your inbox by
a friend aren’t really alerts at all. The Urban Legends Reference Pages has a great search tool: for instance, just entering
“jdbgmgr.exe” will take you to a listing of all pages outlining one of the latest internet hoaxes being passed along from
e-mail box to e-mail box by folks who think they're doing all of their friends a favor by passing along such messages.
If you have ever passed any of the following by e-mail, this page should be required reading for you:
any “virus alerts,”
pleas for letters for sick children,
warnings about unsuspecting ingenues waking up in iced water baths missing kidneys,
stories about Nieman Marcus or the Waldorf-Astoria charging upwards of $250 for recipes,
any internet petition which doesn’t include your full name as written when you registered to vote (including
full street address) -- check out petitions.org to view what real internet
petitions look like,
or
promises of free Coke or money or free software just for forwarding an e-mail along to others.
And, along the lines of hoaxes, the Data Fellows Virus Hoax
Page is considered the IT industry standard for checking the validity of virus warnings. As the page directs, “
Bookmark Now!”
And, those of you who’ve noticed that I abhor imperfection will not be surprised to find
MarthaStewart.com among my links listings! Martha rules! She knows
everything about just about everything, from how to clean an iron so you don't mark your shirts with ancient iron dirt to
how to crumb coat a cake. I only wish I knew how to do everything Martha knows how to do! But, I can only aspire to
perfection... and, even Martha doesn’t know everything, as some of you will assert her past legal problems
demonstrate. But, I still love her. GO, MARTHA!