More Web Sites Worth a Look
The Nonverbal Dictionary: Members.AOL - A terrific guide to nonverbal communication, with definitions, photos, and other material illustrating the gestures, shrugs, facial expressions, and other devices we use to communicate without words.
What Caused the Power Crisis?: Nightline - The Public Broadcasting System's answer to "60 Minutes," explores the causes of California's power problems.
Need a Neat Page Counter?: Pagenet Pets - Haven't you always wanted an animated page counter for your Web page? One that could go out and kill other people's counters? (They keep counting, even in their graves.)
How's Your ISP's DSL?: DSL Reports - Compare the speed of various DSL providers you're considering, or just see how your ISP ranks.
Help for Your Web Site: Free Site Builder - Lots of free tools and free advice for putting a Web site together with some panache, and plenty of links to go further.
Microsoft Is Watching You: NewMediaWhore - Internet Explorer 5.5, and possibly other versions, tracks every user by means of a unique global identifier it puts on your hard drive. What it uses this for, and how other sites can also use this number to identify you and track your interests, makes for a fascinating—if somewhat terrifying—article.
Is That My Phone?: C|Net News - Birds in Copenhagen have learned to imitate the dulcet sounds of a chirping Nokia, and have incorporated the sounds into their songs.
Dumb, Dumber, Dumbest: The Dumb - This is the home of Dumb with a capital D—dumb laws, dumb criminals, dumb facts, dumb Web sites, and everything else you might want to know about dumbness.
If I Get My Hands on That Idiot!: AnyWho - Your cell phone's Caller ID feature tells you what number keeps calling, but who is the idiot? Here's a search engine that will tell you what name and address go with a phone number, and give you driving directions.
Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Disclosure Project - The Disclosure Project is "a nonprofit research project working to fully disclose the facts about UFOs, extraterrestrial intelligence, and classified advanced energy and propulsion systems."
Cruisin' Down Highway 404: Plinko - One of the Net's most annoying aspects is the 404 Error page, which lets you know your browser can't find the page you're looking for. This is an archive of the most entertaining 404 pages, with info for webmasters and others.
Words for Every Occasion: Quotes and Sayings - The Quotations and Sayings Database: quotes for every occasion, arranged in different ways.
What Am I Doing Wrong?: Free Answers - Ask a computer question in plain English and get an answer from FreeAnswers.com; a good resource for Microsoft, Adobe, and Intuit products.
Traveler's Guide: Independent Traveler - Guides to recommended sites, discount fares and rates, travel bargains, and tips on vacation sites. This site started on AOL, and has just set up its own server.
Training Courses in Web Design: West CIV - Free courses for webmasters in HTML, XHTML, cascading style sheets, and more.
Yet Another Programming Language: Curl - Another programming language for the Web, aimed at cross-platform usage.
Sending Payments Online
How Not to Pay Online: C|Net News - C|Net looks into several companies that promise to let you pay for things online, and tells you how to research them. Did you know the Better Business Bureau rates PayPal as unsatisfactory?
Researching Silicon Valley Companies: BBB Silicon - If you're going to do business with a company in the Silicon Valley, here's the Web site of the Better Business Bureau covering that area. You can request a company report by name, address, or phone number of the company.
Other Research: ePinions - To find other people's opinions, check out this site-lots of opinions about lots of companies, with 443 about PayPal when I checked.
When Things Go Wrong: FTC - The Federal Trade Commission doesn't help individuals, but does keep a database of complaints and can pursue a fraud investigation if numerous complaints are received about a company.
Other Payment Options: Escrow or Tradenable - As an alternative to a service like PayPal, which limits itself to transferring money, you can check out a service like these two, which act as escrow companies, holding the money until buyer and seller are both satisfied.
Tom Anderson spends entirely too much time surfing the Web and has only this column to show for it. Send him your suggestions for Web sites to visit.
