Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens;

Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens;

Brown paper packages tied up with strings;

These are a few of my favorite things.

When I took the picture of Pooky, my Shih Tzu, sleeping as he likes to do, upside down, with his favorite things, I suddenly could hear Julie Andrews signing the song. It struck me that we all spend lots of time on the ‘net, but the sheer size of it makes it hard to find lots of neat places unless someone tells us, so, I’ve made a list of some of my favorite things (aka web pages) and I’ve added a few brief comments on each, but you really need to go there yourself and see what’s on it and in some cases try out the program. http://www.nasa.gov/

Hard to beat this one for kids of all ages. Lots of great information and images, things to do and games for everyone. My picture in a MARS spacesuit was taken at the NASA exhibit, last year, during the AARP convention in Boston. (No I didn’t really have to put it on, just another example of what Photoshop can do for you!)

http://www.wpclipart.com/
This is where the clipart you see in this column comes from. The owner, Mr Paul Sherman has posted them for public use, free of any restrictions. WPClipart is a collection of high-quality public domain images specifically tailored for use in word processors and optimized for printing on home/small office inkjet printers. There are thousands of color graphic clips as well as illustrations, photographs and black and white line art. All are in lossless, PNG format. As of Wednesday, 07/02/2008 there are 20,947 images. So, feel free to use them in your letters, e-mails or whatever.
Thanks, Paul!

http://www.aroundhawaii.com/
I’d be foolish not to mention the url you are now on if you’re reading this on the ‘net! But don’t just stop with this section, explore all the neat things that are available to you; you’ll be glad you did. Be sure to setup an account…it’s free…so you can join in and comment on various columns and participate in other ways. You might consider using this as your homepage as it has lots of things to start you off, e. g. Local news and weather.

http://www.the-tug.org/
If you need help with computing or are just interested in learning more about them, this is the place to go. The TUG is the oldest continuous PC User Group in Hawai'i.  Dedicated to educating  members in the wonders of computers and computing.

http://www.musipedia.org/
The folks at Musipedia! are busy building a searchable, editable, and expandable encyclopedia of tunes. And you're invited to take part in the action. Their Melodyhound can find a tune even if all you know is the melody. Simply whistle or sing your melody into the computer. Musipedia will search for a match in its database. Or take the easy way out. You can search for sheet music and MIDI samples using keywords. Where do you think I got the words to my favorite things?

http://www.scambusters.org/
This one is a must for everyones favorites (Internet Explorer) or bookmarks (Firefox). Check out why The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, NPR, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, Forbes, Consumer Reports and so many others have recommended scambusters  

http://www.scambusters.org/press.html  for useful, practical, and trustworthy information on identity theft, Internet scams, credit card fraud, phishing, lottery scams, urban legends, and how to stop spam. The urban legend section is specially good for checking out e-mails you get that make all sorts of outrageous claims or supposedly quote someone well-known. Instead of just hitting the forward button, try checking with scambusters first…folks on your contact list will appreciate it!

http://www.hulu.com/
This is your best friend on a rainy day. Old movies, not so old movies, TV programs, you name it they may have it. The best part is it’s free and maybe the best, best part is it’s legal. Put the popcorn in the MW and off you go.

http://www.worth1000.com/
Calling all camera buffs, with all the super picture taking digitals out there, here’s your chance to cash-in on your talent. Worth 1000 is dedicated to photo contests. Some have hefty prizes, too. While you are there, check out the stack of clever photo galleries. Be careful. A few galleries are for those 13 and older, but you'll know that before viewing.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/
If you do any amount of writing, whether for the office or just e-mails, I’d be surprised if you haven’t found this one, which, along with the Encyclopedia Britannica are indispensible tools. I’d recommend the free tool bar that lets you look up words while you’re browsing anywhere on the web. And who hasn’t longed for a thesaurus when you’re stuck in the middle of a profound sentence?

http://www.windows-vista-update.com/
While I realize many of you have not taken the leap to Vista, for those that have, here is an excellent place to go to learn more about it and to find tips and tricks to make you experience more enjoyable. Be sure and signup for the free newsletter. Here is what the author says: “We have put together what is absolutely the most comprehensive Windows Vista repository on the world wide web today... Every week we'll rummage through the world wide web and bring you news and information about Windows Vista. “

http://www.realmilitaryflix.com/public/main.cfm
If you’re retired from the military, former military or just a military buff, this is the place for you. A huge collection of film and video which will boggle you mind and entertain you at the same time I would hope. Again, the good news is no charge and it’s legal. If you are like me, you figure you have been pretty reliable about updates, but there are some that we just miss and others that don’t remove the old versions, so it was an eye-opener when I ran this program on my pretty new laptop. After that I ran it on all my PCs and did the updates, I felt a lot better and I think they all ran better, at least I felt like they did!

http://www.privnote.com/
This one is for fun, don’t get all serious about sending stuff that self destructs, just because you can…I always recommend you never use e-mail when you’re mad. I tried it out and it’s fun…kinda like writing a note with lemon juice when you were a kid. Here’s how this works: Privnote is a web tool that you can use to send private notes over the Internet.

What makes Privnote different from sending a regular email or instant message?

• You get a link to the note, and once that link is clicked the note is destroyed so it can only be seen once. If someone intercepts the link and sees the note before the person who's intended to read it, that person will know that the note has been eavesdropped, and can tell you about it.
• If you want to be notified when your note gets read you can do it by checking the notify box located below the note. Neither email nor instant messaging provides a reliable way to know if, let alone when, your messages are read.
• If you send a note and suddenly regret having done so, you can click the link yourself which will destroy the note and prevent the receiver from reading it.
  Sending links in emails is as easy as writing the note in the email itself, so why not add a little extra privacy at zero cost? Besides, everybody knows how to click on a link so you won't have to explain anything new in your email.

http://crossloop.com/ipage.htm?id=movie
CrossLoop is a free, secure screen-sharing utility designed for people of all technical skill levels. If friends or relatives are stuck with a problem, here’s an easy way to help them out which beats the telephone call or e-mail method. CrossLoop extends the boundaries of traditional screen sharing by enabling non-technical users to get connected from anywhere on the Internet in seconds without changing any firewall or router settings. It only takes a few minutes to setup and no sign up is required. Security is built into all aspects of CrossLoop. Click on the url for a short movie which explains how easy it is to use

http://twitter.com/
After blogs, this one was inevitable…it looks like more of a fun thing than a serious one as you can see from the example of how little 140 characters is. While it appears like something the younger folks might enjoy, take a look…you might surprise yourself. The lure of Twitter—as well as its Achilles heel—is its simplicity. You "twitter" (yes, it's a verb) by answering the question "What are you doing?" in 140 characters or less. (How much information can actually be conveyed in 140 characters? As a yardstick, consider that this parenthesis contains exactly that number of letters and symbols.) These dispatches, sent as often as you like, are immediately blasted out to fellow Twitterers who have chosen to "follow" you, i.e., see everything you twitter by phone, IM or Web. One doesn't respond to a twitter, a big advantage over more intrusive forms of communication like instant messaging.

http://www.yapta.com/
This is one that saved me $600 in airfares last year. Although things are looking pretty grim in the airline business, they are still having sales, which is how Yapta can save you some bucks. I actually got a reduction on a trip I took the end of May and another friend did the same with a June trip. It’s another freebie and all you have to do is signup and you can have Yapta watch flights you are thinking about booking and if you have already purchased your ticket, it will e-mail you whenever the price changes so if it goes down you can go to the airline and get a certificate for the difference.

That's it for now...remember to be careful out there while you have fun exploring the wonders of the World Wide Web.
Aloha, Lou