Search here
Google has now gone beyond the toolbar on to the Windows taskbar, so you can search the web without opening a browser. For example, if you highlight a word in a Microsoft Word document or other application, then you can Google for it by pressing Ctrl-Alt-G. However, why be "a captive to Google", asks Dave Bau. Dave's Quick Search Deskbar does the same thing, but it also lets you search Yahoo, get Merriam-Webster definitions and Bloomberg stock quotes, and look up Switchboard phone numbers. (All of these are US-oriented.) The Google Deskbar does offer some non-Google searches, and you can add your own sites, but it is still a Google Labs experiment. Dave's Deskbar is open source software, released under the GPL, and is up to version 3.1.6. http://toolbar.google.com/deskbar
http://toolbar.google.com/deskbar
http://notesbydave.com/toolbar/doc.htm
Final frontier
The Voyager 1 spacecraft, launched in September 1977, is reaching the edge of the solar system and entering interstellar space. Nasa and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are helping people to follow the Voyager missions on the web, with The Golden Record, a 25-year history. You can also download the GrandTour program for DOS and Windows, which "simulates space as seen from the Voyager and Giotto spacecraft" in wireframe graphics. www.nasa.gov/missions/deepspace/voyager.html
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov
www.jpl.nasa.gov/flash/voyager_record
www.bykeyword.com/pages/detail5/download-5882.html
Blog on
Can you think of more than 50 places where you could start a blog? Peter Scott's Weblog Compendium has a list of almost 80, complete with links and very brief descriptions. Other resources include lists of blogging tools, news sources, text ad sites, RSS (syndicated news) readers and other things the would-be blogger might need. You can stay up to date with new developments by reading the Compendium's blog. Scott, a university librarian, also runs a library blog for the Xrefer search site, and has been tracking internet resources since launching Hytelnet in 1991. www.lights.com/weblogs
www.lights.com/weblogs/weblog.html
http://blog.xrefer.com
Earth art
America's Library of Congress has mounted an exhibition of Landsat 7 satellite imagery with the colours chosen for dramatic effect, rather than naturalistic or scientific purposes. Many of the pictures look oddly like photomicrographs, and there are no prizes for spotting things that look decidedly fractal. The 35 images include the West Fjords in north-western Iceland, Garden City, Kansas and Mount Kilimanjaro. www.loc.gov/exhibits/earthasart
World music
The Sound of the City, for music buffs, is the title of Charlie Gillett's history of popular music from 1945 to 1972. Last year, it led to the production of five double-CD compilations under the collective title The Sound of the City, covering music from five musically distinctive American cities: Chicago, Los Angeles, Memphis, New Orleans and New York. The website, however, has now turned into a comprehensive record of Gillett's weekly BBC London radio programme, with details of all the records played over the past couple of years, pictures of all the guests and a search engine. Recent guest have included Rodrigo y Gabriela, Fernanda Porto, Eugenio Bennato and Taranta Power. A few programmes are still available as RealAudio streams. www.charliegillett.com
Video mail
Tiscali has launched a free video mail service, VMail, which lets Windows users send each other video clips or enjoy live videoconferencing and/or instant messaging. Of course, Windows users could already do this using Microsoft's NetMeeting and its successors, or one of the instant messaging programs. VMail is unusual because it uses Macromedia Flash 6 to compress and send the video, and is claimed to be easy to use. Don't have a webcam? VMail customers can buy two Creative NX WebCams plus two microphones for £39.99, which Tiscali says is half the suggested retail price. http://webcam.tiscali.co.uk
Six of the best World Cups
Rugby
Football
Paragliding
Boomerangs
Robocup
Quidditch
harrypotter.ea.com/quidditch/usa/home.html
