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Welcome to the 176th issue of the Cool Tricks and Trinkets Newsletter offering weekly insights into new, cool, useful, fun, unusual and interesting sites on the Internet.
In this issue:
- Pictures of the Century
- Karen's Power Tools
- Led Pants
- Short Takes
- The Art of Violin
- The Webby Awards
- I Should Be Working
- Wallpaper Changer
- Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers
- Subscribers' Sites
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Pictures of the Century
From an Easter Parade in New York City on the first day of the 20th century to Bill Clinton playing the sax in 1994, the past century of American history is presented at Picturing the Century: 100 Years of Photography from the National Archives.
Based on an exhibit at the archives, the site uncovers black-and-white images of the Wright Brothers, construction of the Empire State Building, a mushroom cloud - all in eight galleries of a dozen or so striking images each. Also included, portfolios of premier American photographers, from Dorothea Lange's small towns and bread lines to Ansel Adams' soaring, nature. Visitors can also purchase images through the site.
http://www.nara.gov/exhall/picturing_the_century/home.html
Karen's Power Tools
Pink portable drills are not in the toolbox at Karen's Power Tools. Instead, visitors will find dozens of handy computer gadgets, all simple, low-tech and free -- specifically for Windows users.
Karen is Karen Kenworthy, a writer for the now-defunct and much-mourned Windows Magazine and its online version winmag.com. But don't despair: Karen is still sharing her tips, advice and insights via a free online newsletter. At the site she offers her free power tools like Print Logger, which keeps a record of each document your computer prints, or Font Explorer, showing the fonts available on your computer. You'll wonder how you ever got along without these tools, as basic as a hammer and saw.
http://www.karenware.com/powertools.html
Led Pants
Led Pants is the slightly hyperactive online portfolio and cartoon center created by New Mexico illustrator and animator Mr. Led Pants, whose clients have included Microsoft, Disney and Nickelodeon. He disdains polluters, politicians and nuclear proliferation and adores sustainability and his wife, Mrs. Petunia Pants.
The site, like its creator, has something nutty for everyone. At KidLed, young visitors can play games like Picnic Party, where kids find pairs among the bizarre, friendly animals, and science projects like Gizmo, teaching how a pulley works. Led4Undead is a chamber of horrors about environmental toxins, Led4Ledheads has posters, t-shirts and other Led stuff to buy.
http://www.ledpants.com/
SHORT TAKES
Love Signs
I Really Love Signs is a classic boutique web site devoted to a specialty hobby -- in this case, signs. Six galleries classify the sign genre into Hand-Painted, Neon/Bulbous, Plastic, Monumental, Type Samples and just plain Strange. In a homogenous world, these signs can be appreciated as part of a bizarre and wonderful universe - preserved here.
http://www.pjchmiel.com/photo/signs.html
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Awesome Recipes
Chef Brian Johnson's "kitchen on the web" cooks up Awesome Chef Recipes - creative and gourmet-style, according to the chef. If Chile Dusted Pork Chops and Hopi Indian Stew look promising, sign up for the free newsletter, check out his secret ingredients and browse his tips, tricks and techniques.
http://awesome-chef-recipes.tripod.com/
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Calorie Calculator
A useful resource for weight watchers and the health conscious, the Calorie Calculator lets you pile the day's consumables into an easy-to-read chart and calculates the total calories, carbohydrates, fat, fiber, protein and sodium you've downed. More than 6,000 foods are in the database, making input as easy as pie.
http://www.webfitnesstools.com/cgi-bin/bde/food/food.cgi
The Art of Violin
The violin may hold the distinction of making both the most painful and the loveliest music ever heard -- the former played by a practicing 7-year-old, the latter by a superstar like Itzhak Perlman. The Art of Violin from Great Performances may turn you into a super-fan.
Visitors can learn about the violin in Anatomy of the Instrument, read biographies of modern violinists like Perlman, send questions to experts and, most satisfying, hear the unique sound and style of such artists as Jascha Heifetz, Isaac Stern and many others. Online lesson plans lead kids through a history of the instrument that produces an array of sounds as amazing as the range of human emotion.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/shows/artofviolin/artofviolin.html
The Webby Awards
Forget the Oscars, this is the award show that really counts in the 21st century. From the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, the 6th Annual Webby Awards honor achievement in technology and creativity in 30 categories, from Activism to Sports, Fashion to Weird.
If you've got your own world-class web site, the Call for Entries for 2002 continues until January 31. Judges are a Who's Who of the creative media community: musician Beck, The Simpson's Matt Groening, Oracle's Larry Ellison, even Francis Ford Coppola. Most thrilling: the glimpse the awards give along the path ahead, where the crazily evolving web is headed. The 2002 Webbys will be announced in May. Meanwhile, play catch-up by browsing the 2001 winners.
http://www.webbyawards.com/main/
I Should Be Working
Uh-oh, it's the boss! Hit the panic button - and your screen of games, jokes, cartoons, loafing tips and shopping sites is instantly redirected to a business-oriented web site that makes you look like the perfect corporate partner instead of a slacker at I Should Be Working.
This goof-off site gives slackers plenty of ways to blow off the workday, including just the right 'tude about procrastinators, loafers, "long lunchers", and other web-addicted employees. The venerable Forbes even awarded the site an honor for celebrating slackerdom as an art form. Besides just playing, laughing and loafing, visitors can send free cards, pick up free stuff online, chat with other semi-professional loungers - more than enough to fill an 8-hour day.
http://www.ishouldbeworking.com/
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Wallpaper Changer
Watching the wallpaper gains new meaning at Wallpaper Changer, a site full of free tools that lets Windows users manage their screen wallpaper as if it were a stock portfolio. Select from many wallpapers supporting JPEG, PNG, GIF and BMP formats, and then program a constantly evolving look to occur on startup, once a day, randomly or at regular intervals.
It's a lot like decorating your home with an interior designer. Tile, center or resize your images, even have them analyzed to find the best matching backgrounds or most readable icon captions. Create, save and reload your favorite wallpapers or, for a fun look, make your desktop icon captions transparent so your wallpaper shows through. Darling, it's so you!
http://www.wallpaperchanger.de/
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers
Mark Twain a sci-fi writer? Absolutely, at least according to the official web site of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, whose genre is "as open as the speculating mind."
Science fiction and fantasy is among the most exciting and liberating material being written today, and the 37-year-old SFWA is home to its most daring writers, both famous and yet undiscovered. One of the largest (and most powerful) writers groups around, the SFWA awards the prestigious Nebula, whose past winners include such classics as Frank Herbert's Dune. Here visitors are schooled in both the craft of writing and the business, and members share their work and their feedback in what appears to be a thriving literary community.
http://www.sfwa.org/
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SUBSCRIBERS' SITES - Many of our subscribers have fascinating on-line projects. This weekly section will introduce you to some of these sites. Please let me know about your project so that I might mention it in this section. Write me at info@tricksandtrinkets.com
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~Learn about Kiwifruit and play the "Kiwi Bungee" game:
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~Find out if your organization can be considered "excellent":
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OOo-(_)-oOOo--------
Banish uncertainty.
Affirm strength.
Hold resolve.
Expect Death.
TAO
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Have a great weekend.
Charles
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