Freedom's Not Just Another Word
The Blue Ribbon Campaign for Online Free Speech
The Electronic Frontier Foundation
Internet Users' Association
Pretty Good Privacy E-Mail Encryption
ANONYMOUS SURFING -- A way to surf the Web without leaving tracks?
Freedom of Information Center
Telecommunications Act of 1996
The Center for Democracy and Technology -- Privacy concerns, and a demo page to show what information servers can pick up about you.
Privacy in the Digital Age -- C/Net shows you how to find out what other people can find out about you.
Andy's Cookie Info w/o nuts -- Know about cookies? You should. Lots of info and links.
BrowserWatch -- Following rumors and facts.
Computer Crime
Guide to Hate Groups on the Internet
Voters Telecommunications Watch
Related links
ACLU Freedom Network
ACLU of Florida
Amnesty International
U.S. Constitution
The Declaration of Independence
The White House
The United States Senate
The House of Representatives
Congressional Internet Caucus
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Getting Around and Doing Stuff
All You Need To Know About The Internet -- A basic introduction by Dwight Silverman of the Houstin Chronicle
Zen and the Art of the Internet -- A decent, if dated, basic introduction. Falls down when it goes into things few people use anymore.
E-Mail Etiquette -- A fair cut at the problem is presented here. I would go further, though. One of my main gripes is that many people send brutal email, saying things at a keyboard they would never say to the person's face. Hey kids, words can hurt.
Computer Virus Myths -- The straight scoop from A to Z. If you see a virus behind every email message you should check this out.
Computer Virus Help -- Henri Delger
Middle of Nowhere -- Brad Cox. Check the links on the left for thoughts on the development and direction of life at the keyboard.
How the Propeller Heads Stole the Electronic Future -- by Steven Levy
WebDeveloper.com -- How to build Web Sites. Tutorials for beginners to advanced users.
The Web Developers Virtual Library -- More tutorials, as above. Both are good sites.
Microsoft Word Tutorial -- Vanderbilt University. Aimed at laboratory reports and papers.
Web Graphics on a Budget -- Excellent site. The Paint Shop Pro tutorials are great.
Java Boutique -- If Java's your cup of tea, this is a good place.
PC Week -- online version of industry newsmagazine
I, Cringely -- PBS computer columnist
Dear Nerd -- Straight answers to computer questions, but the archive search format is awful (returns only dates, not title or subject summaries)
Kim Kommando -- Syndicated columist with straight-dope computer answers. The archive is here.
Purloining and Pilfering -- intellectual property on the Web.
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Programs and Utilities
Download -- C/NET's extensive collection of shareware and demos
Tucows -- Tons of programs for Web design and cruising the Net
No Nags -- freeware and shareware
BrowserWatch - Plug-In Plaza! -- Heaps of browser plug-ins
McAfee VirusScan -- This is the one I use (and we have it on all the computers at work, too). It seems to be better at picking up Word Macro Viruses, which can be nasty critters.
RealAudio
WinZip -- My favorite.
Paintshop Pro -- Lots of bells and whistles.
STF Downloads -- Makers of stf-rgb, a slick freeware program to determine page and font colors.
HTML Writer -- A fine HTML editor; small, fast and cheap ($10 donation).
NOTESPAD -- I don't know how I lived without this. Replaces Windows notepad, holds very large files, up to 16 files open at once, font control and a lot more. Free.
Adobe Acrobat Reader. -- Free reader for PDF files, often used to transmit formatted material over the Web.
Eudora Light -- Versatile Email client. This version is freeware.
WS-FTP LE -- Freeware version for education, home, noncommercial use. Slick.
Netscape is the browser I use.
And in case anybody is interested, my word processor of choice these days is Microsoft Word.
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Search Engines
At my job at the University of Florida I get lots of email, maybe 30 messages a day. Most of them could be answered by using a search engine. We even have one on our web site to index all 4,000 documents, but a lot of people don't seem to know how to use them. Me, I love them. It makes wandering around this huge, constantly shifting global library a lot easier. The main ones are listed below, with comments. Since they have different ways of collecting their data, the results will differ.
Alta Vista -- Want to see how many pages link to your page? Type "link: YourURL"
Excite -- Good, detailed search engine. If you have a large site, they have a free version you can use on it.
Yahoo -- Structured, with lots of additional features. Add-driven (like Alta Vista), so commercial sites get preference. Good place to start. Links to other search engines at the bottom of the first result page. Your search terms carry over to the other sites.
Lycos
WebCrawler
HotBot
InfoSeek
Netscape Netcenter Search
Specialized search engines
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- Deja News -- Searches Internet Newsgroups. Pretty good, but doesn't hit them all. Good place to start, though.
- Filez -- Looking for icons, graphics, shareware? This engine narrows your search for specific catagories. Neat place.
- ISA - Agricultural Information System -- Very good agricultural search engine.
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Parental Watch
As a long-time parent, I feel the Web is very much like instant books when it comes to kids. I never censored anything my kids read, but I always made sure I knew what they were reading. I don't think you can isolate kids from what's out there in the big world (I don't even think that's a good idea), but you can provide guidance and advice. Sometimes that advice is "no." This is a long-term lifetime commitment that every parent should make before having children.
The following services have been developed to block "non-appropriate" sites from children. My hackles rise when anyone decides they know what's best for me, so I have a basic dislike for these places.
I am placing them here simply because there is so much fear about "all that dirty stuff" on the Internet and presenting this optional service for parents may be the bone we need to toss to those in power who think they have the power to shut things down.
To them I say: It's too late to put the Genie back in the bottle.
Cybersitter
Net Nanny
SafeSurf
Surf Watch
Page last modified 7/18/98
All links verified on that date
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