Bewitched, beguiled, bemused...the background of this text (and much more) can be found under "music and numbers." "The pictures on these pages were created with a simple but novel algorithm that translates invisible structure into geometry. The baseline of the diagram represents a piece of music; the arcs connect identical or closely related passages. The result is a new view of musical form that is both precise and beautiful. This is Fur Elise, Beethoven."

martin gave me permission to use these images, and I'll be putting one up per page until I run out of them.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

CDML: 
Waxing mathematical...
"The CDML Personal Calculator is an advanced desktop tool for every-day use.   Besides the functions of a standard calculator, the CDML Personal Calculator provides users with the following features:

A resizable Tape Display with user-selectable fonts 
7 Memory Functions 
8 Financial Functions 
9 conversion modes 
A Scientific Expression Evaluator 
A Calendar
A Scratch Pad (editor)
User-defined number of Decimal Places 
2 Percentage Calculation modes 

The conversions come in handy when dealing with various international and time standards. The financial functions make it easy to derive various payments and dividends (i.e. Mortgage, credit cards, stocks, etc.). The scientific expression evaluator helps to process advanced mathematical expressions and to print them out with the result. The tape is useful for reviewing your work. 

The tape can be searched, printed, annotated or published to another program. The CDML Calculator uses minimum screen real estate.  Supports Always On Top and Tray and has complete On-Line help."

And, and, and it's FREE!
The advertizing is annoying, but you'll never use the Windows Calculator again.

The Eroded Self: Warning! Warning!.."the trails you leave as your words and actions navigate the Net - in chat rooms, e-mails, Web sites - build a picture of you that you may not wish to present to the world." The virtual recorder is always on online.

Got VISA? Worried about using your charge card over the Internet?
"Despite what you may have heard from your friends and neighbors, if you live in the United States and purchase something online (or off) with a Visa or American Express card and someone steals your credit card number, you will not be held responsible for ANY of the resulting unauthorized charges.  You pay NOTHING!  No US$50.00 "deductible," no "security surcharges" ... NOTHING! 

Librarians Index to the Internet: A truly awesome and searchable collection of Internet reference resources put together by the Berkeley Public Library.

Noodle Quest: Define your academic research strategy with a little help from the Librarian at The Nueva School. 

The Northville District Library of Northville, Missouri, has put together a tutorial for patrons who have NEVER operated a computer before. Click up this page and leave them alone for awhile. Then click over to Mouse Practice and leave them alone some more. Then show them how to open the Solitair game. They'll begin to leave YOU alone!

The Educational CyberPlayGround: Where teachers go to learn how to use the Internet efectively, especially those that have llittle or no online experience. Currently receiving 4000 hits a day, this place is a model of good design, application and content. It belongs on the curriculum right after " Mouse Practice."

Students Beware:
"EVE is a powerful tool designed to combat the growing problem of internet plagiarism. EVE accepts essays in plain text format and returns links to web pages from which a student may have plagiarized. EVE has been developed to be powerful enough to find plagiarized material while not overwhelming the professor with false links." 

Hey, you remember the one about the guys who mounted JATO rockets to their car and went for a ride down the highway? They qualify for a Darwin Award, having "contributed to the improvement of our gene pool by removing themselves from it." Click on the fish.

WebICQ: No downloads, no registration, no java, no hassle. What ICQ should have been from the gate. Maybe it's time I got myself a Number and a Password. Do UCQ?

Legal Forms: Generic, Downloadable, printable and free.

Tracks: Where the Web Leads
I saw this word used in an article: schadenfreudian, and took a few clicks around to find the meaning of it. It wasn't at Merriam-Webster or Dictionary.com, or Bartleby.com. I found it in the third listing of a Google search. On a whim, I punched up "bartleby" in Bartleby's search form (where I thought I should have found SOMETHING about "schadenfreudian" in the first place) and the first page it served was a biographical sketch of PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY who's memorial slab, placed there by his friend Trelawny, is inscribed with "Cor Cordium" of which a poem by Swinburne was written. That little picaresque adventure introduced me to a very real treasure in AN INDEX OF POETS IN REPRESENTATIVE POETRY ON-LINE which resides at the University of Toronto. The whole took less time to do than to write about! And the uninitiate wonder where the time goes. 

USER FRIENDLY, "the chronicle of a group of well-meaning but misguided Internet workers." Where Netslaves go to laugh at themselves. Click on the Dust Puppy.

For a look at some REAL Netslaves, Digital Outsourcing Services got 'em. This company, based in Cebu City in the Phillipines, is advertizing, "a low cost solution for American companies looking to outsource their data processing work. Labor costs begin at $6/hour for basic tasks." Yo, scriptkiddies, just how much did you think you were worth last week?

Paul Thurot, Windows Maven and a regular contributor to WindowsNT Magazine wrote an evaluation of Microsoft's daze in court. It begins: "Microsoft has been beating up on the rest of the industry-friend and foe alike-since its inception." I used to think he was a shill. Not any more. At his WinSupersite he calls them like he sees them.

 For an adventure in the Microsoft Way of Problem Solving, consider fixing that annoying shut down problem you're having in Windows98. First, work through the Trouble Shooting page for a half hour or so. 

How to Cut up a Chicken. From America's Test Kitchen: The Consumer Report of Cooking, Cook's Illustrated. 

The Best Freelunch on the Web: Economics, the "dismal" science, draws the most extraordinary writing talent. Feed your head.

There's a goblin waiting out in the cornfields for those of you nasssty children who use this service...
 

ENTROPY*GRADIENT*REVERSALS: One of the authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto irregularly distributes a personal screed that he attributes to his alter-ego, Rageboy. Lucid, eclectic, flash-back/forward inducing prose; Winter Solstice is a personal favorite.